Brand-name or Equal: Evident Scientific, Inc.’s Olympus Automated VS200 Slide Scanner System

Amendment 001 to extend the submission due date.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducting research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders and stroke. The NINDS mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

The Cellular Neurophysiology Section (CNS) research in 12 focuses on circuit and cellular properties of dopaminergic neurons located in the midbrain. We are interested in the physiology of a subset of dopamine neuron located in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) that undergo selective cell death in Parkinson’s patients.  Specifically, we are interested in understanding how synaptic and intrinsic conductances differ among subpopulations dopamine neurons with the hope that this may provide insight to why SNc dopamine neurons are particularly vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease.  Our goal is to identify novel physiological and genetic markers in single SNc dopamine neurons which may be useful in defining subpopulations of these neurons in a meaningful way. 

The Cellular Neurophysiology Section requires a Evident Scientific, Inc.’s Automated VS200 Slide Scanner System microscopy to analyze mouse brain sections. The automated slide scanner allows CNS lab members to image up to 6 slides at a time with minimal human hours; maybe 15-20 minutes of initial setup, then the entire slide will be imaged overnight. Using a traditional microscope, it would take one of the CNS lab members ~1 full day to image all of the brain sections on 1 slide. With an automated slide scanner, 6 slides can be imaged overnight, and the decrease in time at the microscope allows lab members to be more efficient with their projects. Thus, the automated slide scanner will significantly increase the CN’s productivity.