Request for an Olympus VS200 slide scanner

这项申请是为购买一台奥林巴斯VS200幻灯片扫描仪提供资金，该扫描仪带有多载玻片送纸器 以及存储服务器，用于保存由系统生成的数据。这台仪器是由一个小组请求的 NIMH资助的研究人员非常需要在高空扫描数百张幻灯片 Brightfield和荧光模式下的分辨率。该设备将被安置在中心内，用于 匹兹堡大学医学院的生物成像(CBI)。这一核心设施的任务是 是提供全方位的光和电子光学、图像分析和形态测量 方法对匹兹堡大学医学院内的所有研究小组进行调查。 以获得对蛋白质和活性基因分布的全面和定量的评价 中枢神经系统，用眼睛扫描和收集快照图像来引导不再是足够的 科学，因为这通常会引入偏见，当蛋白质表达在 低水平表达或在整个大脑区域非常分散的位置表达。相反，有一种迫在眉睫的 而且普遍需要分析3D分布，通常是在多个区段和大范围内。 这项提案中的调查人员一直在使用CBI内可用的“家庭酿造”解决方案。 虽然这些设备可能具有空间和光谱敏感性，以满足调查需要 团队他们需要在整个成像过程中得到照顾，以选择图像区域、添加润滑油或更换幻灯片 也被积极与CBI合作的大量调查人员使用 系统。因此，此应用程序的主要原因只有一个：提供急需的高 为NIMH支持的生物成像中心用户提供高质量、自动化的仪器时间。 CBI自28年前开始运作以来，已成为医疗体系中不可或缺的一部分 研究界目前与300多个小灵通资助团体一起参与研究项目 在医疗领域内，以及在PHS支持的项目中，与其他部门的调查人员和 在邻近的机构。 NIMH资助的机构内的用户基础继续增长，其对大型 自动化成像面积继续扩大。缺乏可用的扫描时间已成为一个主要问题 限制CBI对这一特定用户群体的效用的因素导致了相当大的 受挫，因为资助工作的进展完全依赖于高质量的定量分子 脑部切片解剖学。购买一台自动玻片扫描显微镜，专门用于 这个用户组将极大地增加中心的活动和功能，因为它将缓解 允许其他用户组访问现有系统，并将有助于缓解当前的用户瓶颈 由我们的NIMH资助的同事进行高分辨率幻灯片扫描。

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.