“Geometry Of Life and Disease: Foundations and Potential Translational Impacts of Computational Histopathological Phenomics” presented by Keith Cheng, MD, PhD 

All multicellular organisms are comprised of cells and extracellular components that possess theoretically quantifiable, three-dimensional features and relationships organized into tissues, organs, and organ systems.  Physiological and disease states are marked by physical change on the micron scale that in turn requires submicron pixel resolutions. To digitally define the geometry of life, we need to be able to image all cell types, analogous to what is done in histology, over fields-of-view (FOV) of millimeters to centimeters to obtain organ context. To achieve this, we have created a large-field, high-resolution instrumentation in conjunction with fixation and metal-staining approaches that we call histotomography. To break the barrier of <2 mm FOV provided by traditional microscope lenses, we have created centimeter scale field-of-view lenses paired with large chip array digital cameras to yield submicron pixel resolution over 5 to 12 mm.  This instrumentation will increase our understanding of the diversity of life, biological and gene function, development, and disease and be applicable to more powerful toxicology, and biomedical diagnostics.  We will discuss potential benefits of computational phenomics for society, barriers that remain, ongoing and potential projects, and how to best create research opportunities for CTSI members to take advantage of histotomography and computational phenomics to answer scientific and clinical questions that matter.  

REGISTER HERE