ULTRA-THIN DIAMOND WIRE SAW FOR HISTOLOGY

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The specific aim of this project is to manufacture, develop and evaluate an ultra-thin synthetic diamond wire saw for sectioning biological specimen. 6-12 (mu)m in diameter molybdenum, tungsten or stainless steel wires will be diamond coated by Plasma Aided Chemical Vapor Deposition (PACVD) to create the abrasive coating. The submicron sized diamond grains will be deposited in a controlled fashion at regular intervals on the wire. An existing wire saw machine will be used to section various tissue samples. The goal is to achieve 1(mu)m-50(mu)m thick sections for light microscopic evaluation of fresh tissue, hard to section bone, tooth or cartilage tissue, tissue of various hardnesses and large diameter organ of organism samples of higher quality than is available by current techniques. The usefulness of the technology for medical applications in such fields as immunocytochemistry, enzyme histochemistry, diagnosis of biopsy specimens, and effects of drugs is anticipated. The long term goal is to commercialize a histological wire saw machine as an alternative or ancillary technology to existing microtomes. This machine will overcome the limitations of conventional microtomes in a number of applications and will also make possible a finer and more molecular analysis of various tissues.