Application for a slide scanning platform to aid translational research in the University of Dundee

这项提议将允许邓迪大学的邓迪成像设施购买最先进的研究设备，称为幻灯片扫描平台。在医学院和生命科学学院，这种设备将支持20多个研究小组，这些研究小组致力于一系列有可能影响患者护理的项目。这些项目增加了对疾病过程的了解，并揭示了细胞的功能和信号。这将有助于疾病预防或达到最佳治疗结果的诊断和治疗决策。这些项目使用实验室中的细胞或组织，重点研究癌症研究、炎症和身体许多部位的感染，包括大脑、肠道和肺部，以及神经科学和肝脏疾病的项目。其中许多项目已经得到了MRC的资助，在当地拥有这种设备将增加研究资金的价值。了解细胞和组织如何在疾病中发挥作用的一种常见方法是取一片组织(称为切片)，然后对一种或一组蛋白质进行染色。蛋白质是细胞中驱动细胞行为和功能的信号。这使得研究人员能够评估这些蛋白质在疾病期间是否被打开或关闭，或者与正常组织相比，或者在疾病发展的不同阶段，在细胞内移动了位置。一旦组织切片被用显示特定蛋白质表达的彩色或荧光信号染色，最好的做法是通过使用载玻片扫描仪捕捉切片的数字图像。这款扫描仪的吞吐量很高，能够在短时间内从多个部位获得高质量的图像。然后，这些图像被上传到一个软件平台，允许研究人员分析他们的数据，包括聚焦于组织中特定感兴趣的区域并以数字方式标记的能力。然后存储该图像，以便在不同的时间进行进一步分析，供共同工作的研究人员小组查看，并支持在科学期刊上发表研究成果。

This proposal will allow the Dundee Imaging Facility at the University of Dundee to purchase state of the art research equipment called a slide scanning platform. Across the Schools of Medicine and Life Sciences, this equipment will support over 20 research groups working on a wide range of projects with the potential to impact patient care. These projects increase understanding of disease processes, and uncover how cells function and signal. This will help diagnosis and treatment decisions for disease prevention or to achieve best treatment outcome. The projects, using cells or tissues in the lab, focus on cancer research, inflammation and infection across many body sites including the brain, gut, and lung, alongside projects in neuroscience and liver disease. Many of these projects are already funded by the MRC and having this equipment locally will increase the value of research funding. A common way to understand how cells and tissues function in disease involves taking a slice (called a section) of tissue and staining for a protein or group of proteins. Proteins are the signals in the cell that drive cell behaviour and function. This allows the researcher to assess if these proteins are switched on or off or have moved location inside the cells during disease compared to normal tissue, or at different stages of disease development. Once the tissue section has been stained with a coloured or fluorescent signal showing expression of a particular protein, the best practice is to capture a digital image of the section through use of a slide scanner. This scanner is high throughput, offering the ability to obtain high quality images from many sections in a short time. This image then is uploaded into a software platform that allows the researcher to analyse their data, including the ability to focus on and digitally mark particular areas of interest in the tissue. This image is then stored to allow further analysis at a different time, to be viewed by groups of researchers working together and to support publication of research findings in scientific journals.