MICROBRIGHTFIELD, LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stereologic cell counting has revolutionized the fiel

MICROBRIGHTFIELD, LLC — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Health and Human Services.

Amount
$348,102
Agency
Department of Health and Human Services · National Institutes of Health
Program / Phase
SBIR · Phase I
Solicitation
PA11-134
NAICS
Place of performance
VT
Period

Description

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stereologic cell counting has revolutionized the field of neuroscience over the last 20 years, and numerous studies highlighting the impact of stereologic cell counting in basic neuroscience and pharmaceutical and biotechnology research continue to be published. A single study, however, may take months since investigators must decide by visual inspection whether or not to count each cell according to three-dimensional (3D) stereologic counting rules within thousands of microscopic fields-of-view. Because of this reliance on manual inspection, stereologic cell counting has remained very labor intensive and time-consuming to perform. As a result, faster automated, though less accurate non-stereologic cell detection approaches have remained in widespread use despite their known disadvantages and biased results. In response to this challenge, this project aims to develop an innovative microscope system for fully-automated stereologic cell counting ( FASTCOUNT ), building