Remote monitoring of cellular network assembly and function

A video microscopy based collaboratory has been developed to study cellular network dynamics, in particular, to monitor live-cell spatio-temporal organization in real-time. The aim is to investigate the effects of intercellular communication on tissue genesis, differentiation and cell survival. The platform enables multiple researchers to remotely access a digital microscopy system consisting of very high-resolution CCD-imaging technology coupled with real-time (∼ 1 Gbps) data transfer throughput. Remote control and image acquisition facilitates collaboration between cellular biologists, tissue engineers and computational scientists studying complex cellular organization dynamics and assembly. The remote control microscope is connected to a local ´server´ such that a ´client´ using any web browser that supports Java can access it. The ´server´ software is written in Java 2 (jdk 1.3). Any Internet user can control the microscope and interact with other users who are on-line or are directly connected. This interactive environment does not impose any hardware or software limitations on the ´clients´. A remote user can control the movement of the stage in X-Y axes, control focus (Z axis), change magnification, change excitation and light emission filters and their corresponding shutters, acquire topographic and fluorescent images from the microscope and process theses images. The tele-microscopy based environment serves as a focal point for investigators with different expertise to collaborate synergistically on projects that require multi-disciplinary approaches.