I am doing a market study for a client. I need to estimate the number
of research labs in North America that have a principal investigator
(PI) whose budget is at least $1M/yr. The lab could be financed by a
private company (pharma or biotech) or by state or federal grant
money. The only labs of interest to me need to be performing tissue
research wherein the experiment involves staining and visually
inspecting microscope slides. My client wants to know the total number
of such labs in North America that might be a customer for an
innovative automated microscopy solution to the problem of manually
viewing such slides. I am assuming that each PI has the discretion to
spend up to $50K for capital equipment just like the PI might choose
to buy a new sequencer or high-end centrifuge.

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Clarification of Question by michaellutz-ga on 10 Apr 2003 17:33 PDT

The answer must have backup: It must contain reference to backup
material so that I can verify the number and use the material as the
basis for a marketing campaign.