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Karen L. Bentley, M.S.

Associate in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Diagnostic Electron Microscopy
Technical Director, Electron Microscope Research Core

URMC Labs
601 Elmwood Ave., Rm B-7819
Rochester, NY 14642-8626
Tel: (585) 275-1954
Fax: (585) 756-5337

Karen_Bentley@urmc.rochester.edu

Ms. Bentley's clinical interests have included the development of educational materials and teaching sets for diagnostic electron microscopy. Currently, she is technical director of the Electron Microscope Research Core, a facility that is available to all URMC researchers.

Qualifications

M.S., University of Rochester 1984

Research Overview

Karen Bentley oversees the EM Research Core, which houses a twelve year old Hitachi 7100 Transmission Electron Microscope, with a newly designed electronic optical lens system that obtains sharper images. It has an attached digital MegaView III camera and a computer imaging system (acquired in 2004) that permits easy viewing and image capture of specimens during the live EM examination. The accompanying software package, “AnalySIS”, allows the morphometric analysis (measurement) of any subcellular structure or organelle. This digital image capture and processing system was made possible by a financial gift from the Friends of Strong volunteer organization. Scanning Electron Microscopy can be done on any specimen type.

The EM Research Core provides services for routine processing and morphological assessment at the EM level. Researchers request’s often involve methods for pre- and post-embedding immunoelectron microscopy using biotin-, HRP, or gold conjugated markers for precise localization of antigens at the ultrastructural level. Other methods include negative staining techniques for visualization of viral particles, as well as a published innovative EM Research Core technique: “The large block tissue embedding direct off the slide/pop-off technique”, to find “needle in a haystack” cells to be examined by EM, as well as customized techniques.

Publications

Miano JM, Ramanan N, Georger MA, de Mesy Bentley KL, Emerson RL, Balza RO Jr, Xiao Q, Weiler H, Ginty DD, Misra RP. Restricted inactivation of serum response factor to the cardiovascular system. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Dec 7;101(49):17132-7. Epub 2004 Nov 29.

Sowden MP, Ballatori N, Jensen KL, Reed LH, Smith HC. The editosome for cytidine to uridine mRNA editing has a native complexity of 27S: identification of intracellular domains containing active and inactive editing factors. J Cell Sci. 2002 Mar 1;115(Pt 5):1027-39.

O'Reilly, M.A, Staversky, RJ, Watkins, RA, Reed, CK, deMesy Jensen, K.L., Finklestein, JN, Keng, PC. The Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 protects the lung from oxidative stress. Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol. 24:703-710, 2001.