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.
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.
