IMPLEMENTING A COLLABORATORY FOR MICROSCOPIC DIGITAL ANATOMY

The Collaboratory for Microscopic Digital Anatomy (CMDA) will allow bi ologists at remote locations to acquire over the network three-dimensi onal data on biological structure using a sophisticated high-voltage e lectron microscope (HVEM) located in San Diego. The CMDA will transpar ently distribute to high-performance machines on the network computati onally intensive tasks for the derivation of three-dimensional dataset s from HVEM images using tomography and for volume visualization. Impl ementation of the CMDA includes development of automated microscope fu nctions for specimen positioning, image focus, registration, and acqui sition; an asynchronous communications system for transporting message s and large data sets between processes; a resource manager for access control and routing of tasks to computing or acquisition resources; a nd systems for tomographic reconstruction and three-dimensional volume visualization. The CMDA is designed to be extensible to other unique centralized instruments. It will increase access to and use of these i nstruments and high-performance computers by biologists and facilitate remote collaboration.