DVI Microimager™

The DVI Microimager™ is a integrated system that includes an illumination light source, filter wheel, robotically controlled microtome, diamond knife cutting assembly, high-end CCD array camera and control computer.

In the DVI Microimager, a sample (see diagram below) is clamped in a robotic microtome and moved on a motorized translation stage, cutting the top 0.5 to 4 microns on a diamond knife. After capturing an image of the surface of the block, the next cut is made and then a servo-controlled platform advances the block by a distance exactly equal to the amount of material removed from the surface. Image data is collected through epiilumination fluorescence microscopy optics in multiple color channels, and the resulting optical images are captured on a high-end CCD array camera. The DVI Microimager repeats this process approximately 300 times per hour, automatically storing the information on a hard drive. As the images are collected, each may be shown on a computer display to the laboratory operator.

DVI can be operated in a 2D-only mode, or by repeating the serial collection of thousands of precisely registered two-dimensional images per sample, DVI can form the raw material for a high-fidelity 3D digital replica of the tissue. The two modes are entirely compatible and could be selected from sample to sample. Microscience Group Inc. has developed proprietary post-processing methods for forming this data into a high-performance file format to facilitate a standard-setting volume rendering performance on off-the-shelf Pentium computers.