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Brake Receives Grant to Increase Access to Bioimaging

无忧视频 engineering professor Joshua Brake has received a grant from the to develop a modular, inexpensive, open-source and multi-modal in vivo imaging system to democratize access to bioimaging.

Brake and colleague Kevin Cash, a professor at Colorado School of Mines, are co-investigators on the grant, which is funded as part of RCSA鈥檚 newest initiative, . The initiative is a collaboration between RCSA and the , with additional support from the .

鈥淭his project is exciting because it has the potential to significantly broaden access to imaging systems which might otherwise be out of reach for researchers at smaller institutions like Harvey Mudd,鈥� Brake said.

鈥淐ommercial in vivo imaging systems can run for upwards of several hundred thousand dollars. The goal for this project is to leverage commercially available cameras and electronics to create a system which will provide similar functionality at a small fraction of the cost. It鈥檚 just the type of scrappy thinking that I think embodies Mudd engineers,鈥� said Brake, who came up with the idea for the project during discussions with Cash, whom he met at a Scialog meeting.

鈥淭he Scialog program is unique,鈥� Brake said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a kind of mash-up of a scientific conference, informal discussions with your colleagues over coffee, speed dating and an episode of Shark Tank.鈥�

Each Scialog is a three-year program of annual meetings centered on a particular theme. About 50 early career faculty members in fields related to the topic are selected to participate, and a group of about 10 senior scientists serve as mentors and discussion leaders. At the end of the meeting each year, there is a 24-hour proposal contest in which participants form an idea with someone they鈥檝e never worked with before, write a two-page proposal and then pitch it to the rest of the fellows and facilitators for $50,000 in seed funding for a year.

鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to see how spontaneous conversations can spark new, creative ideas,鈥� Brake said. 鈥淚鈥檓 excited to get started on this project with Kevin and his team and to see where we and our teams can take this idea!鈥�

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