Microscope Slide Scanner

PROJECT SUMMARY This proposal seeks financial aid for acquiring a Zeiss Axioscan 7 high-performance microscope slide scanner to enhance our research and educational capabilities at Howard University. Currently, our university relies solely on an obsolete Nikon Ti-E PFS inverted scope, our only operational confocal microscope, which unfortunately offers outdated features and underperforms. The Axioscan 7, Zeiss's latest advanced imaging system, provides a range of scanning microscopy capabilities, including fluorescence, brightfield, and polarization microscopy. Its features make it essential for a variety of applications, especially in biomedical research and education, aligning with our institution's mission to lessen health disparities and advocate health equity among underrepresented groups. The proposed Axioscan 7 Slide Scanner will be housed and managed by the Howard University Imaging Core (HUIC), a facility with over 25 years of experience in leading preclinical imaging research on campus. The HUIC will maintain a dedicated lab for the scanner, employing experts for supervision, training, and maintenance. The HUIC Special Purpose Fund will handle its long-term administrative requirements. This setup encourages interdisciplinary collaborations, provides cost savings for individual grants and investigators, stimulates budding scientists with advanced imaging, and facilitates understanding of diseases predominantly affecting minority and disadvantaged groups. Our Major and Minor Users, many already funded by the NIH, eagerly await the Axioscan 7 for their research and educational initiatives. The scanner will expedite studies in areas such as traumatic brain injury, the effects of opioids on respiratory depression, gene delivery of immunotoxin in head and neck carcinoma, congenital cytomegalovirus, Zika virus, among others. For education, it will offer invaluable hands-on experience to students in advanced imaging techniques, AI-assisted histopathological analysis, and a summer oral health program. This project has full institutional supports for housing, personnel, and additional management funds, if required. Its use and maintenance will be overseen by the Equipment Oversight Advisory Committee. The Axioscan 7 acquisition will fortify our research infrastructure, attract more academic professionals and students, foster racial equity in STEM, and resonate with Howard University's commitment to improving minority health outcomes via enhanced contributions to health sciences.