Manufacturer Of Confocal Laser Systems Helps Potential Clients Obtain Funding

Biologist Stephen Stricker needs a confocal laser imaging system to do his research, a need shared by about 20 of his colleagues at the University of New Mexico. Fortunately for them, a new program offered by a major manufacturer of confocal systems aims to better the chances that such scientists will be able to assemble sufficient funding to obtain these devices by helping them identify potential sources of equipment grants. Last September, Cambridge, Mass.-based Bio-Rad Laboratories Microscience Division established a Grant Assistance Program to aid scientists like Stricker in their search for the money to buy one of these devices. Stricker's research involves tracking calcium in cells. One way to do this, he explains, is to inject fluorescent, calcium-sensitive markers into living cells and then use imaging technology to create detailed pictures of the cell's calcium status. The confocal system needed to obtain such pictures can't be found on the New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, where Stricker is an associate professor of biology. For the time being, Stricker and colleagues must make arrangements to use the state's only such instrument, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, about 75 miles north of the university. The University of New Mexico scientists would like to have a confocal system a little closer to home. The instrument is expensive, however, costing between $110,000 and $200,000. And so Stricker and his colleagues have applied for a grant to purchase the equipment. To date, two grant proposals have been turned down; two more are being evaluated. Lisa Addor, assistant marketing manager for Bio-Rad Microscience, which sells the MRC-600 Series Laser Scanning Confocal Imaging System, says the grant assistance program provides two services to help researchers like Stricker. First, the company will search an extensive database to identify both public and private sources that are likely to fund the purchase of a confocal imaging system. Second, Bio-Rad will arrange for experienced grant reviewers to go over a proposal prior to official submission and comment on ways the researcher can strengthen the presentation. Stricker has used both. "We wanted to be able to help our customers, which in turn expands the market, and hopefully helps us in the long run," says Addor. According to Addor, Bio-Rad is the only company making confocal systems that offers this kind of grant assistance. A scientist need not commit to buying from Bio-Rad to request a database search for potential funding agencies. To qualify for the proposal review, the grant request must include specifications for a device that a Bio-Rad model could fulfill, although there is still no obligation to purchase from the company. Carol Gay, a professor of cell biology at Pennsylvania State University, is studying a type of bone cell called an osteoclast. Overactive osteoclasts contribute to osteoporosis. A confocal system would allow her to create three-dimensional images of living osteoclasts, providing more detail on their activity than would be obtained through alternative spectroscopic techniques. The grant proposal Gay submitted for this work was recently approved by the National Institutes of Health, but the agency cut the money she requested for a confocal instrument. Gay initially contacted Bio-Rad and two other confocal system makers to ask about features and costs of their equipment, information she used in her NIH proposal. Later, Bio-Rad called Gay to alert her to the grant assistance program. The process of obtaining the names of potential funding sources is fairly simple, according to Andy Gesell, who heads the Bio-Rad grant-searching operation, located in Greenbelt, Md. During a 20-minute phone conversation, a Bio-Rad representative asks the researcher for information that will be used to design a strategy for searching the company's database of funding sources. The scientist is asked to describe the research that will involve a confocal instrument as well as other questions whose answers might help identify a potential funding source. For example, some foundations are interested in promoting science education of minorities or women, so academic scientists are asked about their school's student composition. Or the phone interview might reveal a link between the in- strument's intended use and a foundation wanting to support research related to specific diseases. "The more information that we can get from the scientist, the more thorough our search can be," says Gesell. The database Bio-Rad searches contains information on about 4,000 private foundations, as well as relevant federal programs that are usually well-known to grant applicants. An average search turns up 10 to 15 private funding sources, says Gesell, which Bio-Rad passes to the researcher along with name of a contact at the foundation and its proposal requirements. Both Stricker and Gay have received the results of a database search. Gay says the list of foundations Bio-Rad supplied is "excellent." Stricker says the search was "not as effective for me. Most of the sources I knew of, although there was one or two possible new sources I might look into." Stricker is more enthusiastic about the review that Bio-Rad arranged of two of his proposals that are under consideration for federal funding. Bio-Rad enlists academic scientists with experience reviewing federal grant applications to look over the proposals. "They [the reviewers] gave me suggestions that, if I don't get funded this time, I will use in the future," he says. "The advice was about some minor points, but they were good suggestions that made sense to me." One such suggestion, he says, was to document ways that a confocal imaging system would support instruction as well as research at his institution. Gay says Bio-Rad has offered her advice on how to approach a private foundation, something she's never done before. And to help Gay make the case for the instrument's value to her research, the company is helping her identify a laboratory within driving distance of Penn State's University Park, Pa., campus where she can conduct some preliminary studies using Bio-Rad equipment. Gesell says that Bio-Rad has received about 300 requests for grant assistance since the program began last fall. Since it takes many months from proposal submission until a funding decision is made, it will still be some time before he knows of any instruments funded with the program's help. The grant assistance program will cost Bio-Rad about $50,000, says Addor. "We want to do this for a year to track the progress and then evaluate it," she says. "I just can't say yet whether it's worthwhile. I know our salespeople like it. They like being able to offer it when they talk to potential customers." For more information on the Bio-Rad Grant Assistance Program, call (301) 345-1284, or write to 7211D Hanover Parkway, Greenbelt, Md. 20770. Lee Katterman, a writer based in Ann Arbor, Mich., is editor of Research News, a publication of the University of Michigan.

Manufacturer Of Confocal Laser Systems Helps Potential Clients Obtain Funding

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