Ultrasonic microtome blade for improved histological section quality to enable lean, automated and new tissue tests for increased sample intensity to support stratified medicine diagnoses - ULTRATOME

支持分层医学诊断的下一代组织学将需要增加处理的样本量，以便进行筛选练习并为精确诊断提供更密集的采样。实验室自动化是实现这一目标的关键之一，但可靠地切割显微镜下薄切片以在显微镜下观察组织样本的技术是实现这一目标的主要障碍。切割刀片的磨损、样品损坏、厚度问题以及处理薄切片的困难，都需要高度熟练的操作人员。我们计划开发一种新型的超声波切割刀片，能够轻松切割困难的材料，具有可控的厚度，高精度和减少刀片磨损，以支持自动化的驱动，并有可能将产量增加一倍，以支持高度密集的医疗保健筛查。我们汇集了一个由医疗供应链中小企业组成的多学科联盟，由领先的先进材料研究人员和大学医学院实验室提供支持，代表用户社区，开发和验证新技术并将其推向市场。

Next generation histology to support stratified medicine diagnoses will need to increase the volume of samples processed, in order to perform screening exercises and to provide more intensive sampling for precise diagnoses. Laboratory automation is one key to this, but the art of reliably cutting the microscopically thin sections to view tissue samples under the microscope is the chief remaining barrier to this. Wear on cutting blades, sample damage, thickness problems, and the difficulty of handling the thin section, all require highly skilled operators. We plan to develop a novel ultrasonic cutting blade that will be capable of sectioning difficult materials easily, with controlled thickness, high precision and reduced blade wear, to support the drive to automation and a potential doubling of output to support highly intensive healtcare screening..We have brought together a multidisciplinary consortium of medical supply chain SMEs, supported by leading advanced materials researchers and a university medical school laboratory to represent the user community, to develop and validate the new technology and to bring it to market.