Previous Core Instrumentation Recipients
2014 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Awardee: John O’Brien
Equipment: Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD)
Facility: W.M. Keck Foundation Photonics Center Cleanroom
The plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) tool for depositing thin films of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. This tool will be used by all of the research groups in the facility and the films that are deposited are part of a set of fundamental processes involved in lithographically patterning semiconductors. The deposited films are used as a mask in basically all patterning involving dry etching. It is a replacement for a PECVD tool that was part of the very early toolset of the W.M. Keck Photonics Center.
Awardee: John Tower
Equipment: Video Tracking Station
Facility: Video Tracking Core (VTC)
The Tower laboratory and collaborators have developed novel video imaging technology that allows us to track the movement and behavior of these animals through 3-dimensional space, while at the same time assaying gene expression in internal tissues, including the brain, heart, liver and stem cells. This technology makes it feasible for us to more rapidly screen for drugs that will combat aging-related diseases including
Alzheimer’s disease, heart failure and liver failure, as well as for drugs to combat the toxicity of environmental challenges including air-pollution-nanoparticles, ionizing radiation, alcohol and pesticides. We propose the further development of the Video Tracking Core (VTC) facility to serve interdisciplinary research projects across USC (Dornsife College, School of Gerontology, Keck School of
Medicine) to find drugs to combat these critical diseases and environmental toxins. The funding will be used specifically to purchase 3 new video tracking stations, so that the Core can support multiple projects as proposed.
Awardee: Travis Williams
Equipment: ICP-OES Spectrometer and Elemental Analyzer
Facility: Center of Excellence for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
The proposed elemental analysis facility will involve two instruments that will enable us to measure the percent atomic composition of most common organic and inorganic nuclei in small molecule and material
samples.