This is a revised proposal to request funds for the purchase of a Sky scan 1172 ex-vivo micro Computed Tomography (micro CT) system to support multi-disciplinary funded research at the adjacent schools of the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) and the New York University School of Medicine (NYUSoM). The number of investigators engaged in bone and biomaterials research at NYU has greatly increased in the last two years. Techniques for clinical x- ray computed tomography (CT) have been adapted for imaging of smaller objects with larger resolution by micro CT, which has now become the state of the art technology to study mineralized tissue microarchitecture. This technology has made it possible to study the 3D morphological detail of small animal models of osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease, cancer metastasis, bone abnormality phenotypes, ectopic mineralization, and implanted biomaterials. A group of 13 funded faculties from the NYUCD, NYUSoM and the NYU-Hospital for Joint Diseases (HJD) are identified as major initial users of the ex-vivo micro CT. The instrument will be a shared resource in space in the College of Dentistry which is situated between NYUSoM and HJD. The Schools will support service contract costs and 100% of a technician for the facility manager. The Sky scan 1172 system, the second generation instrument from this company, consists of a desktop Cone-Beam scanner equipped with a 5?m spot size x-ray source and 12-bit CCD camera, resulting in specimen detail detectability <1?m;a dual core controller computer and Dell dual six-core processor workstations in a cluster configuration to efficiently run the 3D reconstruction software. The image processing software may be used on any Windows-based campus computer for standard 2D and 3D hard tissue morphometric analysis and animation. The non-destructive imaging and accurate quantification by micro CT and existence of a cooling stage together with a micro-positioning stage allows the specimen to be used for subsequent molecular or immunohistochemical analysis, providing a more complete characterization than otherwise possible contributing to minimization of animal numbers in experiments. Acquisition of this equipment will enable our institutions to greatly improve the efficiency of biomedical research directly related to pathophysiological processes and animal models of human diseases.
