Olympus Discovery Center Inaugurated at UMD

On Friday, Feb. 25, Olympus joined the University of Maryland (UMD) in celebrating the grand opening of its new Olympus Discovery Center.

Instrumental Tools for Bioscience and Biotech Innovators
The inauguration of the Olympus Discovery Center at UMD equips its bioengineering researchers with crucial imaging tools to expand and progress their research. Providing a suite of powerful, high-performance microscopy systems, the new facility enables observation deep into living tissue to encourage ground-breaking study of cellular and subcellular events.

Housed in A. James Clark Hall, the new Olympus Discovery Center is located in a hub of engineering innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Under the same roof, students exploring novel approaches and strategies in a range of bioscience and biotechnology research areas can share and benefit from the center’s imaging resources.

Supporting Breakthroughs in Bioengineering Research
To enable the observation of cell cultures and living tissues down to the subcellular level, equipment at this Olympus Discovery Center includes a FLUOVIEW™ FV3000RS laser scanning confocal system, a FVMPE-RS™ multiphoton system, an IX83 IXplore™ live cell system, as well as a CKX53 cell culture microscope and SZ/SZX series stereo microscopes.

“The cutting-edge equipment made available through the Olympus Discovery Center at the University of Maryland will provide our world-class researchers with additional tools to advance knowledge in critical areas such as cancer diagnosis and treatment, cell biology and tissue engineering,” says Gregory Ball, Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland. “I look forward to the future discoveries this partnership will help unlock.”

“Inaugurating an Olympus Discovery Center at UMD fits with our continued efforts to provide bioscience innovators the resources they need to further their scientific aims,” says Lee Wagstaff, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Olympus Scientific Solutions Americas. “We are proud that Olympus microscopy technologies will assist UMD scientists in making discoveries that will shape the way we treat injuries and diseases.”

Olympus Discovery Centers provide researchers the ability to acquire and analyze vital imaging data using advanced microscopy tools. They also serve as a nexus for histology training, information and technique development, as well as a center for learning sample preparation, imaging and image processing. Olympus works closely with its academic partners to develop new products to meet the changing needs of researchers.

About Olympus
Olympus is passionate about creating customer-driven solutions for the medical, life sciences, and industrial equipment industries. For more than 100 years, Olympus has focused on making people’s lives healthier, safer and more fulfilling by helping to detect, prevent, and treat disease; furthering scientific research; and ensuring public safety.

Olympus has manufactured microscopes since the company’s founding in 1919. Today, our Life Sciences business is dedicated to meeting and exceeding the evolving needs and expectations of life science professionals through a comprehensive range of clinical research, educational, and high-end research microscopes and microscope systems. For more information, visit www.olympus-lifescience.com.

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Photo details (pictured from left to right): Fischell Department of Bioengineering Chair John P. Fisher, Olympus Corporation of the Americas Executive Director of Marketing for Life Science David Rideout, Department of Laboratory Animal Research (DLAR) Facility Veterinarian and Imaging Core Director Beth Bauer, DLAR Attending Veterinarian Larry Shelton, DLAR Imaging Core Technical Coordinator Betre Legesse, UMD Vice President for Research Gregory Ball, A. James Clark School of Engineering Dean Samuel Graham, Jr., and Olympus Scientific Solutions Group National Sales Director Jeff Bright.