# ShEEP Request for ImageXpress Micro Confocal High Content Screening System

> **NIH VA IS1** · ST. LOUIS VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The goal of this ORD Shared Equipment Evaluation Program (ShEEP) proposal from the Saint Louis
VA Healthcare System is to obtain a high content confocal microscopy imaging system capable of
obtaining and processing high resolution images of multiple samples, including live cells. The system
will be shared by multiple VA-funded investigators and their colleagues at two affiliated universities
Saint Louis University School of Medicine and Washington University School of Medicine. Both affiliates
have substantial research enterprises connected to the Saint Louis VA. The instrument is designed to
support and enhance the research endeavors of a large and diverse group of VA-funded scientists.
The instrumentation requested, is a Molecular Devices ImageXpress Micro Confocal High-Content
Imaging System and accompanying analysis software that includes multiple application modules pre-
loaded onto an analysis workstation designed to support the imaging and data processing needs for a
wide variety of investigations. The proposed system is configured for spinning disc laser confocal
microscopy to accommodate rapid imaging at multiple fluorescence wavelengths, water immersion
objectives that permit increased depth of penetration for thicker samples at reduced exposure times,
environmental control for imaging of live samples and phase contrast for imaging of unstained cells.
In addition to the need for high content imaging and analysis, a common theme among the
investigators supporting this proposal is the need to image and analyze organoids. These adult stem
cell-derived clusters of cells recapitulate many of the features from the tissue from which they were
obtained and therefore have now been adopted in multiple lines of investigation from personalized
cancer chemotherapy to microbial pathogenesis studies. Multiple projects in this proposal relating
cancer biology, rheumatology, nephrology, cardiology and infectious diseases are designed around the
imaging of organoids as a platform for basic discovery and translation to therapies that would benefit
our patients at the VA.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10177122
- **Project number:** 1IS1BX005572-01
- **Recipient organization:** ST. LOUIS VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** James Michael Fleckenstein
- **Activity code:** IS1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-10-01 → 2021-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10177122

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10177122, ShEEP Request for ImageXpress Micro Confocal High Content Screening System (1IS1BX005572-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10177122. Licensed CC0.

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