In the News

U.S. and Korean Research Institutions Link Laboratories to Advance Microscopy and Information Technologies

May 2003 — Korean delegates from the Korean Basic Sciences Institute (KBSI) joined UCSD Chancellor Robert Dynes and NCMIR Director Mark Ellisman to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) promoting international cooperation in information technology, advanced analytical imaging, and biomedical research. This July, that understanding will become accomplishment as NCMIR begins testing the boundaries of its Telescience; technologies on Korea's new 1.25 MeV ultra high-voltage electron microscope.

This microscope, one of the most technologically sophisticated in the world, has been designed to support systems for Telescience. Dr. Ellisman's NCMIR group developed Telemicroscopy as part of their NIH-supported program to develop advanced technologies for biomedical investigations. The web portal interface for this technology was created in partnership with the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and as part of the National Science Foundation -supported program to develop a National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI).

Ellisman's research group which has been leading the development of Telescience innovations for more than a decade, has pioneered the use of Telemicroscopy with high performance instruments at the NCMIR and with the world's largest microscope (3.0 MeV) at the Center for Ultra-High Voltage Electron Microscopy at Osaka University in Japan.

Access to these microscopes is vital to researchers because of a gap in local resources; the U.S. has not placed a high voltage electron microscope in service for biomedical research since the early 1970s. To improve the resolution, speed and accessibility to data, obtained from these microscopes, NCMIR and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Cal-(IT)2) are developing network infrastructure that will establish an all-optical core for the Internet with wireless extensions throughout the physical world.

With KBSI, NCMIR will improve and extend these web-based Telemicroscopy technologies to enhance seamless access to integrated resources for distributed data management and high performance computation and to improve tools for collaborative visualization.

Korean officials joining UCSD to promote this collaboration included the Chief Director of the Korea Research Council of Fundamental Science & Technology , Dr. Myung Sai Chung, and Korean Basic Sciences Institute President, Dr. Jung-Soon Lee. Dr. Lee, who championed this opportunity to increase the exchange of scientific information acquired through one-of-a-kind instruments, indicated KBSI's pleasure at "building a foundation of strong operational ties" with the U.S. and UCSD.

"This is a win-win situation for the U.S./UCSD and Korea/KBSI," said Ellisman. "NCMIR will be able to establish trans-Pacific use of an instrument that would otherwise be unavailable to us due to its location and financial restrictions, and the Koreans will be able to enhance their own research capabilities by applying our technologies. "

The agreement encourages the exchange of information, technology, and personnel, by recommending that scientists and engineers give lectures, conduct seminars, and engage in workshops and research areas in both countries. This July will see the beginning of that collaboration as NCMIR and KBSI scientists begin experimenting with the international capabilities of the Telescience Portal.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports this collaboration. According to Dr. Judy Vaitukaitis, director of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at NIH, this is an excellent example of the beneficial use of technologies developed under the NIH umbrella and a further step towards promoting worldwide cooperation to accelerate the pace of discovery.

Electron microscopes use a beam of highly energetic electrons to enable detailed structural studies of biological specimens like a thick sample of heart or brain tissue at an extremely high resolution. For example, the new high voltage electron microscope being installed in Korea can identify structures approaching atomic resolution. This new instrument was manufactured by Japanese Electron Optics Laboratory (JEOL) in Tokyo, which has been collaborating with NCMIR for more than 15 years on the design of new advanced electron microscopes for biomedical research.