The Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI, now PNDRI) in Seattle has received a grant of $67,500 from the Murdock Charitable Trust for the purchase of new instrumentation for its confocal microscope facility. The new instrumentation will enhance research into the subcellular mechanisms of disease, particularly diabetes.

"The Murdock Trust grant will help us build our imaging capability," according to Dr. R. Paul Robertson, CEO and Scientific Director of the Institute. "In addition to the regular National Institutes of Health funding that supports PNRI research, grants like the Murdock expand our specialized capacity. We are grateful to the Trust for its generosity, which will help us maintain and grow the high quality of our diabetes research."

The new equipment at PNRI will increase the capacity of the confocal microscope to study real-time protein interactions within live cells. The Murdock Trust grant specifically funds the acquisition of a new diode laser, an automated stage, and new supplemental equipment, which will permit enhanced live-cell imaging, improved imaging of vesicular trafficking, and greater intracellular discrimination.

Robertson points out that PNRI's diabetes research groups are unique in the region. "We have established expertise in beta-cell physiology and a strong team of researchers working to prevent and cure diabetes. This requires us to understand how beta-cell mass is regulated, how insulin secretion is controlled, and how beta-cell function is impaired."

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust is dedicated to enriching the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by strengthening the region's educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. It provides grants to organizations that serve the arts, public affairs, health and medicine, human services, and people with disabilities. But its major funding interests are education and scientific research.

PNRI's confocal microscope is the only one in the region devoted especially to the work of an integrated diabetes research program. According to Dr. Peter Dempsey, the facility director, "the Murdock Trust grant will assist us in making key improvements to the confocal microscope. It will permit us to accelerate and deepen our study of some of the key problems of beta cell development and function. Problems that must be solved in order to prevent and cure diabetes."