Groundwork for a Synchrotron MicroCT Imaging Resource for Biology (SMIRB)

摘要

Abstract We request Alternation and Renovation supplementary funds to allow us to accomplish critical primary goals of our project, Groundwork for a Synchrotron MicroCT Resource for Biology. The enabled work will broaden understanding of the potential impact of this new technology across a variety of model systems and experimental questions. Specifically, the funds would allow us to move into a new room recently awarded by Penn State College of Medicine that will allow us to accommodate collaborative computational space for personnel, as well as two microCT machines. The new “production” microCT imaging system will create a way to continue scanning pilot samples for a range of collaborators while we continue uninterrupted “developmental” work on the first system to increase field-of-view, throughput, and image quality. The urgency for supplementary funds at this time is caused by the recent receipt of a new 12 mm field-of-view system that greatly increases the types of samples that can be imaged using our new technology – a system advance made possible by last year’s supplement. In short, the pan-cellular, full volume nature of the 3D images will allow unprecedented scope and depth of characterization of the diversity of life and tissue structure across all organisms. The supplement will greatly increase our ability to advance the new field of spatial biology by creating new microanatomic and anatomic anchors for other imaging modes such as immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and MRI, and for transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and other molecular “-omics” data.