MRI: Development of High-Throughput ad High-Resolution Three-Dimensional Tissue Scanner with Internet-Connected 3D Virtual Microscope for Large-Scale Automated Histology

该计划的目标是开发一个高通量和高分辨率的3D组织扫描仪与互联网连接的3D虚拟显微镜大规模自动化组织学。该仪器将对各种各样的器官进行数字化，并生成3D数据集。数据处理管道将自动将原始数据集转换为对齐的体积数据集，而无需人工干预。因此，立即获得大规模的组织学数据将有可能为各种各样的研究和研究培训社区。智力上的优点如下。通过快速扫描仪、数据处理管道和基于web的可视化框架，可以轻松获取和共享仪器的大规模输出数据。在过去，对生物器官的研究仅限于总体系统水平的研究或对器官的小子集进行非常详细的显微镜分析。新的组织扫描仪将通过专门的可视化框架以3D方式数字化恢复组织结构，帮助研究人员充分了解生物器官的功能。更广泛的影响有三个方面：(1)以高采集率获得用于生物器官多尺度研究的数字化高分辨率数据，将开辟新的研究领域。(2)在教育基础设施方面，全生物器官显微地图集可作为各级学生和教育工作者的教材。(3)在传播方面，项目成果将为研究团体提供一种新型的三维组织扫描仪，通过虚拟显微镜，研究人员可以从组织样本中获得亚微米级分辨率的数字化三维组织数据。

The objective of this program is to develop a high-throughput and high-resolution 3D tissue scanner with an Internet-connected 3D virtual microscope for large-scale automated histology. The instrument will digitize a wide variety of organs and generate 3D data sets. A data processing pipeline will automatically convert the raw data sets into aligned volumetric data sets without human intervention. Therefore immediate access to the large-scale histological data will be possible for a wide variety of research and research training communities. The intellectual merit is as follows. Large-scale output data of the instrument will be easily acquired and shared through the fast scanner, data processing pipelines, and web-based visualization framework. In the past, investigation of biological organs were limited to either gross system-level studies or highly detailed microscopic analysis of small subsets of the organ. The new tissue scanner will digitally restore tissue structure in 3D with a specialized visualization framework that helps researchers to fully understand function of biological organs. The broader impacts are three folds: (1) Obtaining digitized high-resolution data for multi-scale investigation of biological organs at a high acquisition rate will open up new areas of research in the community. (2) For education infrastructure, microscopic atlases of whole biological organs can serve as educational materials for students and educators at all levels. (3) For dissemination, the project results will provide research communities with a new 3D tissue scanner with a virtual microscope by which researchers can obtain digitized 3D tissue data in sub-micron level resolution from a tissue sample.