UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The directors of the core facilities at Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences work behind the scenes on many successful research projects; often they are accomplished scientific researchers themselves. In many cases, these experts — and their facilities — bring insight, diverse experience, and decades of expertise to Penn State.
Gang "Greg" Ning, associate research professor and director of the Huck’s Microscopy Core Facility, brings more than 30 years of research experience to his work, greatly benefiting Penn State’s capacities in this field.
The Microscopy Core Facility provides microscopic imaging services to the research community 24/7. The facility specializes in three areas: optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and histology, and is equipped with confocal microscopes, research fluorescence microscopes, and transmission- and scanning-electron microscopes. Ning oversees these services, including technical support, consultation for instrumentation selection, project planning, training, collaboration and hands-on experimentation.
“Microscopy should not be micronized nowadays in science and technology. We are doing things in all aspects of research, services and education,” said Ning.
Through his expertise, Ning has been engaged in collaborative research projects while simultaneously developing and implementing protocols for electron microscopy and light microscopy. Ning and his team have worked with researchers from neurobiology, cell biology, microbiology, plant physiology, animal sciences and medicine. Annually, the facility provides hundreds of users with instrumentation for optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and histology sample preparation.
“The University is well served by Greg and his colleagues that fulfill similar roles both within the Huck Institutes and other areas where the University accommodates expensive technologies and the expertise to fully exploit them,” said Nigel Deighton, the Huck Institutes’ director of core facilities at Penn State. “His facility provides services to over 300 users in a year, so he and his team’s contribution to the scholarship of teaching is greater than many regular faculty. All of our facilities have been incredibly well-supported by the Huck and the University as a whole; just today a visiting faculty candidate was blown away by this resource."
Craig Cameron, Jeffrey Houpt Distinguished Investigator, professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at University of North Carolina School of Medicine, agreed, saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words! Gathering stunning images of cells during the process of viral infection is how Greg has moved my research program forward. Transmission electron microscopy is as much an art as it is a science. Greg has mastered both.”
Ning has served as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on eight funded projects totaling $4 million; and published 55 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters, and 15 peer-reviewed conference contributions. His main research interest and expertise are in ultrastructure of cells and tissues in normal and diseased or genetically altered organisms. Additionally, Ning served as elected Leader of Diagnostic & Biomedical Microscopy Focused Interest Group (DBM-FIG) inside the Microscopy Society of America, from 2017 to 2019.
Ning has been working with researchers to implement new protocols and equipment setups in their projects. In collaboration with him, the Cosgrove group invented a protocol for high-resolution imaging of cellulose microfibrils of primary cell walls isolated from plants; this work was published in Microscopy and Microanalysis.
“Greg is very knowledgeable and has been extraordinarily helpful to my team for electron microscopy of the plant cell wall,” said Daniel Cosgrove, professor of biology at Penn State.
In another collaboration, with the LaJeunesse group, Ning used serial block-face scanning electron microscopy technique, a derivative of high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscope imaging, to identify structures of chromosomes inside the nucleus of symbiotic dinoflagellates. The work was awarded Tyge Christensen Prize by the International Phycological Society for the 2017 best paper in Phycologia.
“The microscopy core facility that Greg directs has been incredibly important to my research. Greg leads a great team of knowledgeable and tremendously helpful staff,” said Todd LaJeunesse, professor of biology at Penn State. “Greg has been wonderful to collaborate with on projects where he has personally conducted benchwork and lent his expertise to image our samples for generating the best quality data, which contributed to new and important discoveries.”
During his 20-year tenure at the University, Ning has advised hundreds of researchers on microscopy applications on their projects, worked with numerals technologists, post-docs, and graduate and undergraduate students with technical instructions and hands-on experiments.
Additionally, more than 20 undergraduate students worked in the facility under his direct supervision and mentorship. Former students have reported that working with Ning had played a key role in their career path; one mentioned that Ning was “the most impactful mentor” and “instrumental” in their post-graduation success.
“By the end of the day, you feel great by being able to make a few people’s lives better,” said Ning.
"The Microscopy Core Facility is as an exceptional resource for microscopy imaging, image analysis, immuno-EM, 3D EM and correlative light and electron microscopy. One of the reasons for this is Greg's enthusiasm and desire to meet the research community's needs," said Andrew Read, director of the Huck Institutes. "Along with the support of the Office of the Senior Vice President of Research, he has been vital to Penn State's procurement of new microscope systems. Greg is a true collaborator and freely gives his knowledge to anyone who wants to learn."