Project Number: 6402-21310-002-01
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 12, 2003
End Date: Sep 11, 2008

Objective:
The objective of this research area is to develop novel imaging technologies aimed at confronting critical issues facing production animal agriculture by monitoring, in real-time, cellular and molecular processing in the context of the living organism. Specific research projects will cover a broad range of research in the cellular and molecular biological sciences, disease-environment interactions, and growth and developmental physiology with applications aimed at understanding physiological mechanisms for enhancing production performance in livestock.

Approach:
As part of this initiative, novel technologies which utilize the photon (light), thermal signatures (heat) and fluorescence will be adapted to cellular- and molecular-based strategies to permit physiological processes to be monitored in a dynamic fashion at the levels of single, living cells to entire livestock in vivo. These non-invasive technologies (e.g., biophotonics, which uses light as a quantitative indicator beacon of molecular processes) will enable the expression of genes, the invasiveness of bacteria, or hormone-receptor interactions to be visualized in living systems both in the laboratory and under traditional livestock production environments. Faculty with expertise in functional imaging will interface with collaborating scientists working in the animal and veterinary sciences to develop these novel systems aimed at addressing specific hypothesis-driven and production-based questions. Results from this initiative will not only develop new models to advance scientific progress in reproductive biology, food safety, disease and environmental physiology, but will also develop technological advancements that will address experimentally critical questions which heretofore have not been addressable in living animals.