This application is to acquire an Atomic Force Microscope (BRUKER INNOVA2-SYS) on behalf of the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) Skeletal Biology Biomechanics Core Facility, which was originally established in 2003 by funding of BLR&D Research Enhancement Award Program and later a BLR&D Program Project. This Core had supported more than 50 VA, NIH, and DoD-funded projects in endocrinology, orthopedics surgery, neurobiology, immunology, and cardiothoracic surgery, and enabled numerous new collaborations in basic and translational research within the greater UCSF research community. The proposed acquisition of this state-of-the-art AFM system, which is optimized to facilitate analysis of biological specimens and outcomes, is aimed to further expand our Core capacity. This tool will allow investigators accessing this Core to investigate the physical features of tissues, cells, biomaterials, and molecules at the micron to nanometer scale. Given the critical role of the physical microenvironment in biological processes throughout development and disease, this equipment would allow our investigators to pursue an important unexplored area of research that could not be achieved by the current instrumentation in the Core. This new instrumentation is anticipated in the short term to greatly expand the research scope of 7 active VA-funded projects and more than 15 NIH and DoD projects awarded to the participating investigators.

The goal of this application is to attain a critical new imaging service that evaluates the physical changes in cells and tissues that occur in disease in order to advance our basic and translational biomedical research. Since physical changes accompany and drive disease progression, this tool will reveal new ways to diagnose and treat diseases afflicting a large population of VA patients.