Whole Mouse Cryo-Imaging

描述（申请人提供）：BioInVision, Inc.和凯斯西储大学的研究人员将开发一种用于小鼠3D成像的冷冻成像系统。它将在生物研究和生物技术行业中有很多应用，包括小鼠解剖表型，药物输送，显像剂，转移性癌症，病原体/免疫系统反应，干细胞/再生医学，以及许多其他疾病和治疗过程的研究。通过交替切片和成像，系统将获得三维，高分辨率的解剖彩色和细胞和分子荧光图像。低温成像系统将由一个具有特殊成像功能的鼠标大小的电动低温恒温器、一个改进的亮场/荧光显微镜和一个机器人xyz成像系统定位器组成，所有这些都将由一个控制系统完全自动化。该系统将成像荧光报告基因标记的细胞。通过高分辨率和高灵敏度的成像，我们将建立一种识别小鼠单细胞或细胞簇的方法。一旦细胞被识别，细胞位置就可以在高对比度的三维冷冻图像彩色体积中相对于组织解剖结构进行映射。冷冻成像在所有体内和显微技术中是独一无二的，因为它允许微米分辨率和信息丰富的对比机制在非常大的3D视野中。它将填补整个动物体内成像和组织学之间的空白，使人们能够沿着小鼠->器官->组织结构->细胞->亚细胞结构域的连续体对小鼠进行成像。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): BioInVision, Inc. and Case Western Reserve University researchers will develop a cryo-imaging system for 3D imaging of mice. It will serve very many applications in biological research and the biotechnology industry, including mouse anatomical phenotyping, drug delivery, imaging agents, metastastic cancer, pathogen/immune system response, and stem cells/regenerative medicine, as well as many other studies of disease and therapeutic processes. By alternately sectioning and imaging, the system will acquire 3D, high-resolution anatomical color and cellular and molecular fluorescence images. The cryo-imaging system will consist of a mouse-sized, motorized cryostat with special features for imaging, a modified, bright-field/fluorescence microscope, and a robotic xyz imaging system positioner, all of which will be fully automated by a control system. The system will image fluorescent-reporter-gene labeled cells. By imaging with high resolution and sensitivity, we will establish a method for identifying single cells or cell clusters within a mouse. Once cells are identified, cell locations can be mapped relative to the tissue anatomy in the high contrast, 3D cryo-image color volumes. Cryo-imaging is unique among all in vivo and microscopic techniques in that it allows micron resolution and information-rich contrast mechanisms over very large 3D fields of view. It will fill the gap between whole animal in vivo imaging and histology, allowing one to image a mouse along the continuum from the mouse -> organ -> tissue structure -> cell -> sub-cellular domains.