Cloud Hosting

February 22, 2021

A new multidisciplinary collaboration between the University of Rochesters departments of biology, biomedical engineering, and optics and the Goergen Institute for Data Science will establish an innovative microscopy resource on campus, allowing for cutting-edge scientific research in biological imaging.

Michael Welte, professor and chair of the Department of Biology, is the lead principal investigator of the project, which was awarded a $1.2 million grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

The grant supports an endeavor at the intersection of optics, data science, and biomedical research, and the University of Rochester is very strong in these areas, Welte says. The University has a highly collaborative culture, and the close proximity of our college and medical center makes Rochester ideally suited to lead advances in biological imaging.

The project will include developing and building a novel light-sheet microscope that employs freeform optical designs devised at Rochester. The microscope, which will be housed in a shared imaging facility in Goergen Hall and is expected to be online in 2022, enables three-dimensional imaging of complex cellular structures in living samples. Researchers and engineers will continually improve the microscope, and it will eventually become a resource for the entire campus research community.

The optical engineers working on this project will take light-sheet technology into new domains, says Scott Carney, professor of optics and director of Rochesters Institute of Optics, who is a co-principal investigator on the project. They will transform a precise, high-end microscope into a workhorse for biologists working at the cutting edge of their disciplines to make discoveries about the very fabric of life at the cellular and subcellular level.

The microscope will produce large amounts of data that will require new methods to better collect, analyze, and store the images.

These efforts will focus on developing algorithms for computational optical imaging and automated biological image analysis, as well as on big data management, says Mujdat Cetin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Robin and Tim Wentworth Director of the Goergen Institute for Data Science. Cetin is also a co-principal investigator on the project.

While many other research microscopes illuminate objects pixel by pixel, light-sheet technology illuminates an entire plane at once. The result is faster imaging with less damage to samples, enabling researchers to study biological processes in ways previously out of reach.

In addition to funding the construction of the microscope and development of the data science component, the grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation supports three biological research projects:

Not only am I excited about each of the individual projectsfrom intimate looks at bacteria to finding new ways to analyze imagesI am absolutely thrilled about the prospect of building something even bigger and better via the close collaboration of disciplines Rochester excels at individually: optics, data science, and biomedical research, Welte says. I believe this joint endeavor is only the first in a long line that will establish Rochester as a leader in biological imaging.

Tags: Anne S. Meyer, Arts and Sciences, Dan Bergstralh, Department of Biology, Goergen Institute for Data Science, grant, Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, James McGrath, Michael Welte, Mujdat Cetin, Richard Waugh, Scott Carney

Category: Science & Technology

More:

Rochester to advance research in biological imaging through new grant - University of Rochester