Endview
by Angela Spivey
Instead of renting one hundred fragile microscope slides housed in a scratched-up wooden box, Carolina medical students now get just one DVD. Taking histology — the study of the minute structure and function of tissues — usually means logging a lot of time at the microscope. But now, instead of changing slides and switching lenses, the students can spend more time focusing on the images themselves, using a DVD virtual microscope in the library or at home. Besides adding convenience, the DVD lets students do something never possible with a microscope — examine a tiny slide of tissue in extreme close-up while simultaneously getting their bearings in a zoomed-out view. The technology works sort of like a geographic information system, except the lines on the computer screen aren't streams and mountains but cartilage and fat tissue.
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A section of rat thyroid gland in extreme close-up view. On the right, the thyroid gland itself. To the left is the tracheal epithelium. The dark purple region is cartilage. Image by Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, School of Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill. Click
to enlarge.
The five hundred microscopes normally needed to teach this and other
classes are wearing out, and replacing them would cost $1 million or
more, says Peter Petrusz. Petrusz and William Koch, both professors of
cell and developmental biology in the School of Medicine, developed the
virtual microscope's content in collaboration with the medical histology
faculty in their department. The images come from slides in the department's
histology collection. A private firm digitized them.
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The same sample at lower magnification. Image by Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, School of Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill. Click
to enlarge.
