# A Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy Brain Data Archive

> **NIH NIH R24** · CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $917,648

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Advancements in the field of microscopy and imaging have pushed the boundaries of what
was once thought possible in many fields of research. New techniques coupled with the
application of new technologies allows researchers to probe further and with greater accuracy to
answer increasingly complex questions. While these new techniques allow for far greater
specificity of observation and increased sensitivity in regard to both resolution and frequency,
the amount of data generated is increasing to a point where conventional systems are unable to
manage it. At the current time, there is no practical way to analyze, mine, share or interact with
large (100+TB) brain image datasets. The development of a national, scalable archival solution
for such datasets is a pressing problem extremely important and central to the NIH mission as in
the future there will be a continuous and sustained growth in data scale. To address this issue,
this proposal establishes the BRAIN Imaging Archive (or more simply “the Archive”) data service
in Pittsburgh PA as a collaboration of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), the
University of Pittsburgh (PITT), and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The Archive
encompasses the deposition of datasets, the integration of datasets into a searchable web-
accessible system, the redistribution of datasets, and a computational enclave to allow
researchers to process datasets in-place and share restricted and pre-release datasets. The
Archive will, for the first time, provide researchers with a practical way to analyze, mine, share
or interact with large (100+TB) image datasets by creating a unique public resource for the
BRAIN research community.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10186823
- **Project number:** 5R24MH114793-05
- **Recipient organization:** CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Marcel P Bruchez
- **Activity code:** R24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $917,648
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-19 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10186823

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10186823, A Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy Brain Data Archive (5R24MH114793-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10186823. Licensed CC0.

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