The past year has been particularly productive for the NIAMS Imaging Facility. The number (21) and the quality of publications that include microscopy work carried out in the Light Imaging Section were both high. Papers have been published in Molecular Cell, Science Translational Med., Arthritis and Rheumatology, J. Immunology, Bone, and other high-impact scientific journals. These publications expand our knowledge of autoimmunity, of muscle, skin and bone diseases. Researchers from 14 Sections, Laboratories, or Branches have used the Facility, 25 researchers have been newly trained to use one or more of the instruments and two presentations on the Bases of Microscopy & Ethical Imaging were given to postdoctoral and postbac trainees. As every year, LIS staff have assisted Facility users to apply advanced microscopy techniques, to improve the quality of their images, to quantitate the images, and to prepare these images for publication. LIS staff have also evaluated new instruments that Facility users are interested in and worked on the replacement of out-of-date equipment. We are currently expecting delivery of a Leica SP8 confocal microscope that will replace the Leica SP5 (2007). The SP8, besides producing high quality images is equipped with the Lighting software which offers improved image resolution. It will be equipped with a white light laser that provides more versatility in the choice of fluorophores to image. At the end of the past fiscal year we have replaced the Leica Slidescanner 400SCN by the Hamamatsu Nanozoomer X-2 which is producing high quality images and easier to operate than the previous instrument. Furthermore this change resolved vulnerabilities that had been noticed by the IT department. More than 2000 slides have been scanned in less than a year for scientists in 8 Laboratories/Branches outside of the Light Imaging Section. The Incucytes (S3 and Zoom) have been increasingly used as well. They have been shown to be great at following netosis (Gupta et al., 2018), a form of cell death involving neutrophils. The same users are now developing an assay to follow phagocytosis in live cells. New imaging modalities have been used, for example polarized light microscopy to evaluate collagen (T. Doebel & K. Nagao).
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