Developing New Image Acquisition and Analysis Strategies
Award Imaging Scientist
Funding Cycle Cycle 1
Investigator
Jennifer Peters, PhD
University of Michigan (BRCF Microscopy Core)
Bio
Jennifer Peters received her PhD in Bioanalytical Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2001. She then went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, where her research utilized a novel live-cell confocal microscopy method to image secretion from pancreatic islets. Next, after spending three years in the microscope industry as an applications scientist, Dr. Peters went on to serve as an imaging scientist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for 13 years. During that time, she won first place in the 2012 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition for her image of the blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo. In August 2021, Dr. Peters returned to the University of Michigan, where she is the Managing Director of the BRCF Microscopy Core.
Project Description
This multifaceted project focuses on improving data acquisition, open-source tool development, and outreach. Dr. Peters and her team will begin the project by working to develop methods that address the unique challenges in data acquisition, processing, analysis, and storage associated with light sheet imaging and other advanced techniques which can easily generate terabytes of data in a single experiment. The project’s secondary goal is to continue to move data analysis effort in the core forward. Her focus will be on using commercial and open-source tools to develop pipelines for facility users that are transparent, intuitive, and easily adaptable when experimental needs evolve. Dr. Peters will lead the core in dramatically expanding its education and outreach opportunities. These efforts are critically important for any new imaging or analysis technology to be used successfully.
Alumnus Investigator
Aaron Taylor, PhD
University of Michigan (BRCF Microscopy Core)
Bio
Dr. Taylor became interested in imaging during graduate school at Brown University while pursuing a PhD in neuroscience and using simple epifluorescence and confocal microscopy. He directed a light microscopy and small animal imaging core at Purdue University, where he became well-versed in the fields of imaging and image analysis. The excitement of super resolution and light sheet microscopy next drew him to the Janelia Research Campus Advanced Imaging Center, where he worked with visiting scientists on high-speed structured illumination microscopy and new image analysis approaches.
Dr. Taylor was awarded the Imaging Scientist grant while working as the Managing Director of the BRCF Microscopy Core, where he provided overall direction, engaged students and faculty, and solved the core’s most challenging imaging problems. As of January 2021, he has moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where he directs the Light Microscopy Core, and is now considered an alumnus of the CZI Imaging Scientist Program.