Nathan Shock Center-San Antonio, Aperio VERSA 8 scanning microscope

本行政补充文件的目的是申请经费购买一台扫描显微镜

The purpose of this administrative supplement is to request funds to purchase a scanning microscope that will further improve the Core service provided by the Pathology Core of the Nathan Shock Center (NSC) in San Antonio. The Pathology core has been part of the NSC for about 26 years to a) provide pathology services to local, national, and international investigators for the characterization of animal models (mice, rats, naked mole-rats, and non-human primates) of aging, and b) examine the effects of various interventions (dietary, genetic, and pharmacological) on age-related histopathological changes. The service of the Pathology Core is available to and has been used by investigators from the other cores of the San Antonio NSC, the Intervention Testing Program, San Antonio, Pepper Center, other departments at UT Health, and at other academic institutions in the United States. One of the strengths of the SA Shock Center is our long record of accomplishment in detailed pathological analyses of rodent colonies for investigators focused on aging research, in which we capitalize on the expertise of Drs. Ikeno and Hubbard in the conduct of aging-focused histopathological analyses. The Pathology Core provides investigators with pathology services in aging animal models (mice, rats, naked mole-rats, and non- human primates) and makes the resulting data widely available to the scientific community. Historically, the biogerontology field has been hampered by a lack of well-documented pathology data; without it, survival data provide only limited information about aging. Furthermore, many pathological processes are modulated by nutritional and other putative aging-modulating interventions (e.g., genetic and pharmacological). A major reason for lack of pathology data in many aging studies has been very limited access to pathologists with expertise in aging research. The SA Shock Center has a long record of accomplishments in detailed pathological analyses of rodent colonies for investigators focused on aging research conducted by Drs. Ikeno and Hubbard. In addition to the pathology services in aging animal models (mice, rats, naked mole-rats, and non-human primates), the Pathology Core has been developing a comprehensive archive of histopathological data and images of histopathology slides as a resource for: a) trend analyses by investigators; and b) basic pathological information for new studies. Furthermore, the Pathology Core has developed a tissue archive containing paraffin and frozen blocks, and frozen tissues, with which we provide additional services to make tissue array slides and unstained paraffin or frozen sections, perform histological staining (including special staining), and perform laser capture microdissection. Recently, the Pathology Core has received numerous inquiries to provide “slide auto-scanning” service by the scanning microscope because of the emerging interest and demand to perform “Spatial Transcriptomics.” This cutting-edge and innovative approach becomes important because spatial gene expression data combined with single cell RNAseq experiment, which is currently provided by Integrated Physiology of Aging Core (IPAC), could provide a comprehensive gene expression profile. The slide auto- scanning service with this scanning microscope by Pathology Core along with special transcriptomics by IPAC of the San Antonio NSC will promote the gene expression assays from single cell to tissue sections. This request for additional new equipment conforms to the stated purpose of supporting and enhancing shared resources and facilities for categorical research by a number of investigators from different disciplines. The integration of the San Antonio NSC Pathology Core with other programs to study mechanisms of the aging process has been an obvious benefit to these studies. The incorporation of an additional scanning microscope system will allow us to provide 2D gene expression images on tissue sections during aging and by various interventions.