Workstations for advanced 3-D reconstructions

我的NSERC计划研究无脊椎动物模式物种的简单神经细胞系统。我越来越多地使用我的发现奖来从已识别的神经细胞的连续切片电子显微镜(EM)中生成三维重建。目前，我正在研究果蝇的嗅觉系统和普通海鞘蝌蚪幼虫的中枢神经系统。我的实验室是这些方法的世界专家，我们逐步分析不同大脑区域的突触电路，作为理解行为的神经基础的努力的一部分。作为最近在华盛顿特区附近的霍华德·休斯医学研究所珍妮莉亚农场园区的一名访问科学家，我延长了这项工作的时间，每年两个月。在那里，我与计算机科学家合作，他们已经开发出了显著加快这项工作的方法，使用算法的进步来半自动地从EM中连续的二维图像重建神经元的三维形态。这是Janelia Farm的愿景的一部分，通过自动方法生成一张完整的果蝇大脑接线图。我计划使用Janelia Farm的软件开发来丰富和加速我在Dalhousie的NSERC计划，但需要工作站在我们的数据集上运行他们的软件。数据集本身很大，超过1TB，需要具有巨大内存、处理速度和存储空间的工作站。我提议购买两台这样的先进工作站，每台都配备一个大尺寸的高分辨率平板显示器和2TB硬盘，以反映Janelia Farm提供的3-D重建能力。这些将主要由HQP在本科生助手的协助下，为研究生或博士后研究使用这些数据集。

My NSERC program investigates simple systems of nerve cells in model species of invertebrates. I increasingly use my Discovery grant to generate three-dimensional reconstructions from serial-section electron micrographs (EMs) of identified nerve cells. Currently I am investigating the olfactory system of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, and the central nervous system of the tadpole larva of the common sea squirt, Ciona intestinalis. My lab is world expert in these approaches, and we progressively analyse the synaptic circuits of different brain regions, as part of an endeavour to understand the neural basis of behaviour. I have extended this work as part of a recent appointment as a visiting scientist at the Janelia Farm campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute near Washington, DC, for 2 months a year. There, I work in collaboration with computer scientists who have generated methods to speed such work considerably, using algorithmic advances to reconstruct semi-automatically the three-dimensional forms of neurons from their consecutive two-dimensional images in EMs. This is part of Janelia Farm's vision to generate by automatic means a complete wiring diagram of the Drosophila brain. I plan to use the software developments at Janelia Farm to enrich and accelerate my NSERC program at Dalhousie, but need workstations to run their software on our datasets. The datasets themselves are huge, more than 1 terabyte, and require workstations with huge memory, processing speed and storage. I propose to purchase two such advanced workstations, each complete with a large, high-resolution flat screen monitors and 2TB hard drive, to mirror the 3-D reconstruction capabilities available at Janelia Farm. These will be used mainly by HQP working on such datasets for graduate or postdoctoral research, assisted by undergraduate helpers.