NCMIR pursues a coordinated, three-pronged approach to achieving its goals of imaging biological systems on a grand scale, focusing core technology development in three areas.

NCMIR is building on continued success in developing contrast-enhancing methods, particularly in the area of fluorescence photooxidation of recombinant proteins, for biological specimens that will clearly benefit from the unique capabilities of computer-coupled microscopes. These technologies use correlated light and electron microscopies for large-scale imaging, spanning the dimensional range and scale of tissue organization to macromolecular specializations of cellular microdomains.

The combination of intermediate voltage electron microscopy and electron microscopic tomography remains a focus of NCMIR. With the increasing emphasis on multi-scale integration in biological systems, however, NCMIR has been expanding its activities in correlated microscopy, integrating multi-photon light and ultra high-voltage electron microscopic techniques to accommodate the multi-scale studies being driven by collaboration. To support ultra wide-field imaging, NCMIR continues to build on the success of its ultra large-field lens-coupled CCD camera technologies, pushing the resolution and performance of state-of-the-art digital detectors for high-voltage electron microscopy. As each resource instrument is improved to deliver unique and important new capabilities, each is also being integrated with leading-edge, grid-service-based technologies for generalized Telemicroscopy.

With the development of the Telescience Portal, NCMIR has made significant contributions in the area of grid-enabled environments for end-to-end electron tomography. Many applications have been rewritten in Java and/or modified for web-based operation within a globally distributed grid environment. The Cell Centered Database (CCDB), a sophisticated web-based database management system for 3D microscopies, serves multiple functions, as a data management tool for the resource, as a means to disseminate and share data produced at NCMIR, and as one of a series of linked and federated databases across multiple biological scales as part of the BIRN and Telescience projects.