The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative awarded a two-year grant for Advancing Imaging Through Collaborative Projects to Enabling Volume Electron Microscopy: Building a Global Community and Resources. The group led by Kirk Czymmek, PhD, director of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center’s Advanced Bioimaging Laboratory, will aim to accelerate the adoption of volume electron microscopy technology in the scientific community by building effective resources, expanding the global community, and emphasizing outreach and dissemination.
Because this technology is so cutting-edge, it is not widely available, which has previously made it nearly impossible for most scientists to learn how to use it. Now that they will have access to this new platform, the team hope to remove that barrier.
Thanks to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative grant, the team’s project will produce multimedia outreach materials and training videos; develop vEM software platforms, plugins, machine learning models, and reference datasets; build the infrastructure to maintain a network of vEM-trained scientists; and more, making the Danforth Center’s new Helios 5 Hydra DualBeam one of a global network of vEM systems.
The team is made up of international researchers from the Rosalind Franklin Institute, Donald Danforth Science Center, University of Bristol, University College London, The Royal Microscopical Society, New York University Langone Health, Science and Technology Facilities Council, University of Glasgow and the Francis Crick Institute.
Find out more about the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Advancing Imaging Through Collaborative Projects here.