Mark Ellisman, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of neurosciences and bioengineering at UC San Diego and director of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences/Mark Ellisman
Coordinated from UVM’s Larner College of Medicine, the effort will establish and integrate state-of-the-art high-throughput electron microscopy at UVM, expertise in sample preparation and complementary advanced microscopy techniques at UC San Diego’s National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR), and data management and processing in conjunction with the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing.
“The NCUVO design is about transforming the latest sample preparation, multimodal imaging and computational technologies into a shared national capability rather than a specialty only available to a few,” said Ellisman, who directs the NCMIR. “At NCMIR, we will help to provide the means to turn raw microscopy image data into something that can be interpreted to advance our understanding of biological processes. By combining these capabilities with UVM’s new imaging instruments and SDSC’s resources for advanced cyberinfrastructure, we can empower scientists around the country to complete studies that compare many samples at different levels of detail.”
In addition to establishing the infrastructure for this next generation of imaging, the project will generate millions of gigabytes of data. Ilkay Altintas, PhD, chief data science officer at the SDSC and principal investigator of the NSF-funded National Data Platform, will guide the project’s data curation efforts. Her team will bring expertise in organizing, processing and sharing large scientific datasets, connecting the observatory’s images with NSF-supported national computing resources.
“We’re excited to help shape this important research infrastructure, which will make advanced biological imaging more accessible and open new windows into how living systems process information,” said Altintas. “Drawing on the expertise of the SDSC and the capabilities of the National Data Platform, UC San Diego will help the imaging community design and validate scalable, reproducible workflows that connect imaging data with the computing power needed to turn these remarkable images into new discoveries.”
Once the observatory is established, four pilot projects will test how well it will handle research using different organisms, sample sizes and scientific needs: