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种高通量和高分辨率的3D组织扫描仪，该扫描仪具有互联网连接的3D虚拟显微镜，用于大规模自动组织学。该仪器将模拟各种器官并生成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，各种各样的研究和研究培训社区将有可能立即获得大规模的组织学数据。其学术价值如下。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。过去，生物器官的研究仅限于系统水平的总体研究或器官小子集的高度详细的显微镜分析。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调查的数字化高分辨率数据将开辟社区研究的新领域。(2)在教育基础设施方面，整个生物器官的显微图集可作为各级学生和教育工作者的教材。(3)为了传播，该项目的成果将为研究界提供一种新的三维组织扫描仪，该扫描仪带有虚拟显微镜，研究人员可以通过该显微镜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.