Contemporary life science research has seen increasing integration of approaches that allow highly parallel analysis. The characterization of gene function, driven by completion of genome sequence, has reached a new level of importance with the advent of whole genome RNAi collections that allow large-scale abrogation of metazoan gene function. Microscopic evaluation of phenotype often represents a debilitating rate-limiting step to these approaches, and as a result high-throughput studies most often culminate with simple photometric measurements. Since much of biology rests on direct observation of cells, development of approaches allowing quantitative high-throughput analysis of cell morphology has therefore commanded considerable interest. Northwestern University's newly established High Throughput Analysis facility is a shared resource center that makes it possible for academic researchers to pursue projects that involve large-scale automation. We have recently entered into an agreement with Open Biosystems that allows researchers at Northwestern complete local access to advanced RNAi collections that allow knockdown of virtually all mouse and human genes. This will be operated as a core resource through the HTA lab. We clearly need to expand the analytical capabilities of this facility. A group of NIH-funded researchers are undertaking or have designed diverse projects that require both high- throughput microscopy and sophisticated morphometric analyses of resulting image data. We lack this capability, and no suitable shared instrument is available in the area. We are therefore requesting funds are requested for purchase of a Zeiss/Cellomics ArrayScan imaging system to allow these and other projects to move forward. This system uniquely combines outstanding optical components with industry-leading software and applications development support. The overall benefit of this system will be to advance a number of specific NIH-funded projects relevant to human health, such as cancer and age-related accumulation of misfolded protein aggregates. Placement of this system in the open access HTA Lab will also provide a unique analytical tool for Chicago-area researchers, at Northwestern and other area institutions. ? ? ?
