Request for an Olympus VS200 slide scanner

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This request is for funds to purchase an Olympus VS200 slide scanner with a multislide feeder and a storage server to hold data generated by the system. This instrument is being requested by a group of NIMH funded investigators who have a significant need to scan many hundreds of slides at high resolution in both brightfield and fluorescent modalities. The device will be housed within the Center for Biologic Imaging (CBI) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The mandate of this core facility is to provide access to a full range of light and electron optical, image analysis, and morphometric methods to all research groups within the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. To gain a full and quantitative appreciation of the distribution of proteins and active genes within the central nervous system it is no longer sufficient to scan by eye and collect snapshot images that guide science as this commonly introduces bias and is certainly not appropriate when protein expression is at low levels or expressed in very discrete locations throughout brain regions. Rather there is a pressing and prevalent need to analyze distributions in 3D, commonly over many sections and over large areas. The investigators in this proposal have been using the “home brew” solutions available within the CBI. While these devices may have the spatial and spectral sensitivity to meet the needs of the investigative team they need to be tended to throughout the imaging to select image regions, add oil or change slides and are also being used by the very large number of investigators who are actively working with the CBI systems. Therefore, there is a single prime reason for this application: to provide critically needed high quality, automated instrument time to the NIMH supported users of the Center for Biologic Imaging. Since the CBI commenced operations 28 years ago, it has become an integral part of the medical research community currently participating in research projects with more than 300 PHS funded groups within the medical area, as well as in PHS supported projects with investigators in other departments and at neighboring institutions. The NIMH funded user base within the institution continues to grow and its requirement for large area automated imaging continues to expand. The lack of available scanning time has become a major limiting factor in the utility of the CBI to this specific group of users which has led to considerable frustration, as progress in funded work is absolutely dependent on high quality quantitative molecular anatomy of brain sections. The acquisition of an automated slide scanning microscope specifically for this user group will be a tremendous addition to the activity and functionality of the center as it will alleviate access on pre-existing systems for other user groups and will help alleviate the current user bottle neck for high resolution slide scanning by our NIMH funded colleagues.