IVIS SpectrumCT

Project Summary We present our proposal to acquire a Perkin Elmer IVIS SpectrumCT instrument that will be installed in the IVIS core facility at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. This new instrument will replace a 12 year old imaging system that is at the end of its useful life. The replacement of the old imaging system with the IVIS SpectrumCT instrument is a critical need for the Einstein NIH funded investigators. IVIS been used effectively to monitor tumor or cellular migration and to monitor dissemination of a variety of pathogens and is considered state of the art for these type of studies. Because luciferase or fluorescence activity can be monitored without sacrificing animals, longitudinal measurements can be made on individual mice over time minimizing the number of animals required to obtain experimental data. NIH funded research projects at Einstein that would benefit from this instrument are described in the proposal and include projects in cancer biology and infectious disease pathogenesis. As noted, we require this instrument to replace an IVIS imaging system that was acquired in 2010 and is the only IVIS instrument in the core facility and the only functional IVIS imaging system at Einstein. Due to the age of the current system several issues have arisen in the imaging camera and power system indicating it is near the end of its useful duty cycle. In addition, the current software updates are limited due to the age of the computer system in this instrument. Engineering support and parts for this system are being increasing difficult to source and the vendor has indicated that engineering support for this system will be eliminated. The Einstein IVIS core has sufficient space to house the IVIS SpectrumCT instrument and renovations will not be required to accommodate and install this instrument. In the last year, the Einstein IVIS Core laboratory has assisted 40 different investigator laboratory groups with imaging using the IVIS system. The Einstein IVS Core is also a critical support service for the Einstein Cancer Center and the ERC-CFAR Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS research.