Acquisition of an Episcopic Fluorescence Image Capture System

描述（由申请人提供）：拟从Vasspiral Scientific购买Episcopic荧光图像采集系统（EFIC）。该仪器将服务于分布在校园几个部门的四个主要用户的研究计划。新的EFIC项目的开发也预计将来自范德比尔特强大的、主要由NIH资助的生命科学界的其他研究人员。我们机构的绝大多数研究者以前不可能进行EFIC成像研究，因为在美国唯一具有这些功能的其他仪器位于马里兰州贝塞斯达NIH主校区的国家心肺和血液研究所的Cecilia Lo博士实验室。Lo博士慷慨地与我们合作，为该应用程序的两个主要用户（Southard-Smith & Baldwin）建立了初步数据。在合作基础上使用场外设施足以获得初步数据，以证明这种方法的可行性和价值，但即使是有限数量的调查人员也无法支持具体的明确研究项目。此外，一些样品最好在组织收获后立即成像。因此，胚胎、包埋、运输和立即切片的必要协调对于常规的场外分析来说变得令人望而却步。当地EFIC设施的可用性与现成的机制相结合，通过跨越多个部门的发育生物学计划向感兴趣的同事宣传资源和图像潜力，将对NIH赞助的基础和转化研究产生广泛的积极影响。 EFIC系统的可用性将意味着范德比尔特大学的医学和生物学研究人员在全面解决特定细胞类型的解剖分布和疾病状态中出现的形态学改变方面的能力的巨大飞跃。EFIC在校园内的可用性将显着提高范德比尔特生命科学界研究小组的生产力，该社区主要致力于人类健康研究和对抗疾病的治疗策略的开发。 公共卫生相关性：Episcopic荧光图像捕获（EFIC）系统的安装将使科学家能够在3D中可视化心脏，泌尿生殖道和骨骼等器官系统形成过程中发生的复杂形状变化。EFIC系统基于组织自发荧光或基因表达模式成像的能力使得研究特定基因变化或环境损伤对发育中胚胎的影响成为可能。了解这种侮辱的结果将导致更好地了解出生缺陷和人类疾病的原因和替代疗法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Purchase of an Episcopic Fluorescence image Capture System (EFIC) from Vashaw Scientific is proposed. This instrument will serve the research programs of four major users distributed among several departments on campus. The development of new EFIC projects is also anticipated from additional investigators across the strong, largely NIH-funded life sciences community at Vanderbilt. The ability to pursue EFIC imaging studies has not previously been possible for the vast majority of investigators at our institution because the only other instrument with these capabilities in the United States is located in the laboratory of Dr. Cecilia Lo at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Lo has generously worked with us to establish preliminary data for two of the major users on this application (Southard-Smith & Baldwin). Use of an off-site facility on a collaborative basis is sufficient for obtaining preliminary data to demonstrate feasibility and value of this methodology but cannot support specific well-defined research projects even for a limited number of investigators. Moreover, some samples are best imaged immediately after tissue harvest. As a consequence, the requisite coordination of embryos, embedding, transportation, and immediate sectioning becomes prohibitive for routine off site analysis. The availability of a local EFIC facility combined with a ready mechanism to advertise the resource and image potential to interested colleagues through the Program in Developmental Biology that spans multiple departments will have a broad positive impact on NIH-sponsored basic and translational research at our institution. The availability of an EFIC system will mean a dramatic leap forward in the ability of medical and biological researchers at Vanderbilt University to comprehensively address questions about anatomical distributions of specific cell types and morphological alterations that arise in disease states. The availability of EFIC on campus will significantly enhance the productivity of the research groups in the Vanderbilt life sciences community, which is largely devoted to studies of human health and development of therapeutic strategies to combat disease. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Installation of an Episcopic Fluorescence Image Capture (EFIC) system will allow scientists to visualize in 3-D the complex shape changes that occur during formation of organ systems like the heart, urogenital tract and skeleton. The ability of the EFIC system to image based on either tissue auto fluorescence or gene expression patterns makes it feasible to investigate the effects of specific gene changes or environmental insults on the developing embryo. Understanding the outcomes of such insults will lead to greater understanding of the causes and alternate therapies for birth defects and human disease.