Researchers across the University of Missouri campus all need to transfer data quickly. As the need for improved data and computing solutions increases, technologists on the IT Research Support Solutions (IT RSS) team play an integral role in helping to implement widespread solutions.
Last fall, the IT RSS team began coordinating the installation of microscopic imaging instrumentation that would provide MU researchers access to state-of-the-art technology to enhance their ability to move large amounts of data, without having to travel outside of the institution for support. This process involved the installation in the Roy Blunt NexGen Precision Health building on the MU campus of several microscopes, some as large as 8-feet tall. The team also installed fiber optic cable that lay underneath the infrastructure of the building to ensure high-level data transmission was possible.
Within one year of the opening of the building, which is the cornerstone of the UM System’s NextGen Precision Health initiative, six microscopes have been installed to help take research efforts to the next level.
The Electron Microscopy (EMC) advanced technology core facility is the home of high-powered microscopes such as the Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra 300 (S)TEM, a microscope with one of the highest resolutions in the world, and the Krios G4 Cryo-TEM, a microscope that keeps samples at a frozen state allowing for long periods of imaging.
Before the IT RSS work and the installation of the microscopes, researchers would have to travel to national facilities, which would lead to a six-month lag in their research process.
“Mizzou researchers couldn’t do this research on campus,” said DeAna Grant, assistant director of EMC. “The EMC could provide preliminary sample screening and preparation, but our researchers had to send samples to a national facility to acquire data and publish at a high level.”
Now, researchers have a safe and secure facility to immediately stream their data at a pace that allows them to go further, faster without wasting additional computational time.
IT RSS technologists are diminishing the barriers faced by every researcher, enhancing their ability to transfer a large amount of data quickly to a server and helping their capacity to store their data as needed.
Researchers also have to be able to process that data without delay.
Grant explained no matter whether researchers are experts in neurogenerative diseases or working on solar cell technology, with the installation of this state-of-the-art technology, researchers will be able to work on the next generation of medicine.
“We want researchers on this campus and beyond to be able to utilize this technology, and we want to be able to assist them to bring this into their research portfolio,” she said.
IT RSS is partially a result of a $7 million investment toward enhancing research technology and associated support services systemwide. The investment is part of MizzouForward, a comprehensive strategy to invest in and enhance MU’s research and education missions.