Digital Histology Interest Group or DHIG

Hi all,

The Department of Anatomy at UCSF has a renowned collection of histology slides, which are primarily of normal human tissues.  The slides are no longer used for medical student education due to changes in the curriculum and the adoption of virtual microscopy as the major tool for laboratory instruction.  The slides are stained with conventional dyes and are of very high quality.  The Department wishes to donate the slides to undergraduate or medical institutions, which will make the best use of them for health sciences education.  The slides are available as sets, which cover the major organs and tissues of the human body.  Please contact Professor Steven Rosen at UCSF to obtain further information (steven.rosen@ucsf.edu).

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Kimberly Topp
Professor and Chair
Univ of California San Francisco
San Francisco CA
415-476-9449
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Hello, Kimberly:

Thanks for posting this offer of histology glass slides sets.  For now, I do not know of any institution that could use the glass slides.  Hopefully someone will respond with a lead for you.

I am writing about preserving excellent histology specimens as you indicate that The Department of Anatomy at UCSF has but no longer needs because of the implementation of virtual microscopy. From reading your post I assume that the Department of Anatomy at the University of San Francisco has created virtual slides by scanning the histology specimens that are offered.  If this is the case, have you or Professor Steven Rosen considering donating your collection of virtual slides to the American Association of Anatomists' International Microscope Slide Repository?  You may or may not be are aware that a grant to establish such a repository was submitted last year for funds to support the project to the American Association of Anatomists.  The grant was funded. The principal investigators on the grant are Lisa Lee, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Haviva Goldman, Associate Professor at Drexel University College of Medicine and Michael Hortsch at the University of Michigan Medical School.  They are making progress toward the goal of establishing the repository.  A key factor for the success of this project is to receive donations of virtual slides.  I attached a table from the grant application that shows the institutions and contact persons for those who had pledged to donate slides at the time the grant was submitted.  It is possible that your institution has already pledged to donate your virtual slides.  If not, I hope you will consider contributing to the repository.

I expect that one or more of the PIs on the grant will respond to your post and follow up with Dr. Rosen.

Bob

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Robert W. Ogilvie, PhD
Visiting Professor, University of South Carolina
Professor Emeritus, Medical University of South Carolina
Columbia & Charleston, South Carolina
Cell Phone: (843) 693-1065
Email: rogilvie31@yahoo.com

Thank you Kim!  Michael Hortsch confirmed that some of UCSF slides were scanned at U of Michigan many years ago, with your and Steve Rosen's permission, we would be happy to upload them to the AAA's International Virtual Microscopy Slide Repository which is in the works.  I will also contact him for getting the glass slide collections - I have means to scan and "virtualize" glass slides at my institution for uploading to AAA's IVMSR.

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Lisa Lee
Associate Professor
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Aurora CO
303-724-7460

Thanks Kim, Maybe the DHIG should have a set digitized for addition to its library. Dave

------Original Message------

Hi all,

The Department of Anatomy at UCSF has a renowned collection of histology slides, which are primarily of normal human tissues.  The slides are no longer used for medical student education due to changes in the curriculum and the adoption of virtual microscopy as the major tool for laboratory instruction.  The slides are stained with conventional dyes and are of very high quality.  The Department wishes to donate the slides to undergraduate or medical institutions, which will make the best use of them for health sciences education.  The slides are available as sets, which cover the major organs and tissues of the human body.  Please contact Professor Steven Rosen at UCSF to obtain further information (steven.rosen@ucsf.edu).

------------------------------
Kimberly Topp
Professor and Chair
Univ of California San Francisco
San Francisco CA
415-476-9449
------------------------------