Acquisition of a MICRON IV ocular imaging system

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Abstract Blinding eye diseases cause significant increases in disability and decreases in quality of life for Americans. Research into the mechanisms underlying these conditions and potential treatments relies heavily on rodent models due to their similarities to the human eye and genetic tractability. However, the small size of the rodent eye, and concomitant differences in optics with the human eye, makes it near impossible use human clinical instruments to view ocular pathology in rodents. This not only limits direct correlation between clinical observations in living humans and disease processes observed in rodents, but the invasive nature of the techniques also traditionally used to assay rodent eye pathology prevent most longitudinal studies of rodent eye pathology. The Phoenix-Micron IV ocular imaging system has overcome these challenges by engineering the optics of an instrument capable of methods used routinely in human clinical eye care (fundus imaging, fluorescence angiography, optical coherence tomography, and slit lamp) to match that of rodent eyes yielding assessments of rodent ocular anatomy that are comparable to those seen in humans. Thus, acquisition of the Micron IV imaging system by the University of Delaware and its placement in our multi-modal animal imaging core facility will expand our ability to perform research on blinding eye diseases while also supporting the ocular phenotyping of animal models created to study other debilitating conditions.