The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has announced grants totaling nearly $32 million in support of collaborations and innovations in biomedical imaging.

The funding includes grants totaling $17.5 million to twenty-two imaging scientists — engineers, physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and biologists — at research and medical imaging centers in eleven countries. The five-year grants will support work in the areas of biology, microscopy hardware, and imaging software needed to develop advanced imaging technologies that enable critical biomedical research. 

The organization also awarded $1.3 million to BioImaging North America, a network of imaging scientists, bioimaging facilities, and communities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, in support of efforts to address the practical challenges associated with operating bioimaging facilities and open access imaging technology tools, as well as improving the quality and reproducibility of imaging data. 

And grants totaling $13 million were awarded to thirteen pilot projects focused on technologies that will enable researchers to view information at cellular resolution, in complex tissue, and through skin and bone in living organisms. If successful, the projects — which include technology applications in optical microscopy, photoacoustics, quantum imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, and X-ray — will be eligible to apply for four-year, $10 million technology development grants.

"We want to enable researchers everywhere to visualize, measure, and analyze the biological processes underlying health and disease," said CZI head of science Cori Bargmann. "That means taking multiple approaches. We're pushing the frontiers with our Deep Tissue Imaging grants, we're supporting imaging scientists — the key technology experts who disseminate new advances — and we're building community with BioImaging North America. We're thrilled to welcome our new imaging grantees.

(Image credit: Shwetadwip Chowdhury/University of Texas via CZI)