Weber State College Comment, April 1986, page 7 Innovation Microscop es + vid eos = efficiency sie A new microscope system is being tested at WSC. Roger C. Nichols, director of the clinical laboratory technician program and project director, said eventually teaching in medical schools and other microscope-using classeswill be impacted by the new system. The system uses a video camera developed for microsurgery to transmit the image to specially-adapted monitors. first-of-its-kind wedding of video equipment and microcopes being tested at WSC Students in the clinical laboratory technology program use a new system that combines video equipment with microscopes and could revolutionize medical training, the project director said. . Nichols peers into a microscope (bottom left) while what he sees is projected onto the video monitor at his desk and at four student work stations. The system is the first of its kind in the nation and preliminary results indicate that both teaching efficiency and student comprehension are increased with the system. The program, a long-time dream of Nichols’, is being piloted at the college. microscope sees onto a_ television monitor that allows everyone to see microscope use, achieves a high resolution at intense magnifications. A said. what's happening. “This is like a god-send,” Nichols said. ‘Usually I have to go around and help students one at a time. A tremendous amount of time is saved with the camera is attached to the professor's microscope and picks up images that have been magnified up to 1500 times. That image, be it a blood cell, parasite video.”” With the new system an entire to four specially designed monitors placed at each student work station. An additional arrow control device can box the desired item in a blinking blue light. “What matters is the extra time the students have to practice,” Nichols could revolutionaize medical training, the project director said. The marriage of the two pieces of equipment, said Roger C. Nichols, director technician of the clinical program, puts laboratory what the class can observe a single procedure at the same time, while before, the teacher had to instruct them one at a time. for The system, developed by Hitachi microsurgery and adapted for or piece of bone structure, is tranferred around of the microscope see the data we’re waiting to be tended to.” Students in Weber State’s clinical laboratory science department spend 50 percent of their college career at the going to publish they're going to want “Nobody is standing microscope preparing -to be lab techni- cians in hospitals and clinics. They must be able to find parasites and bacteria, work with blood and analyze cellular fluid. Nichols said the video system will have application in any classroom that uses microscopes. this kind of equipment. It’s dramatic — the effect it’s having on the students’ proficiency.” _ The professor is currently working with a number of video companies to ‘come up with a recorder that will capture the high quality images on the monitor. That will give him the added ability to play back the video during lectures, or even on exams. He said, “When medical schools and other diciplines that have extensive use sancer it’s preferentially absorbed by the cancer,” Dr. Walker said. “We have a good idea how to do that, but first we need to zero in on what's happening on the molecular level.” Dr. Horne and Dr. Walker developed a test that looks at cell destruction and gives the two resear- chers a tool to see what is happening to the cell when hypericin is present. Dr. Horne explained that bacterial cells are surrounded by a rigid wall that keeps the inside of the cell from leaking out and foriegn objects from zyme that pokes a hole in its own cell kill itself and found that antibiotics wall. cause no actual change in the cell, they In post doctoral study at Dr. Horne and others noticed that the presence of penicillin near the bacteria just affect the membrane. That phenomenon may hold the key to understanding what happens in the cell when hypericin is present, she said. seems to set off these suicidal tenden- Dr. Horne said, “Ed and I are com- cies. The antibiotic triggers the celldestroying enzyme that essentially paring the action of the penicillin to the light sensitive dye. It may not be as simple as poking a hole in the membrane, the hypericin may be affecting the proteins in the membrane.” Rockerfeller University in New York, getting in. blows a hole in the cell wall, then enters the cell’s membrane. She said, “Some bacteria are not so stupid, they don’t do this, but many, when they see penicillin, kill themselves.” Occasionally, however, something goes awry and the cell produces an en- Dr. Horne has looked into why the cell would make something that would Dr. Walker added, “Initially, we have to find out what's happening in the molecule. Then we can extrapolate up to the cellular level.” Dr. Walker said that he and Dr. Horne are using bacteria because they are easy and inexpensive to grow. If research progresses well he said they will move up to the more expensive and complex animal cells within the next three to five years. He said, “The trick will be to achieve ‘selective absorption in the cell. Once we overcome that barrier we'll move very quickly into clinical trials.” He added, “Of course it takes time and money and we've got to get some of both before we can go beyond where we are now, but it promises to be a revolutionary technique in the treatment of certain kinds of diseases.”