CAREER: Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging for Understanding the Interrelation of Molecular and Ultrastructural Changes in Neoplastic Cells and Early Cancer Detection

0238903 Backman在这一职业奖项下，光学光谱学和成像的进步将与分子生物学的进步联系起来，以研究经历癌前病变和早期癌转化的上皮细胞组织变化的动力学。一种新的光谱成像技术将被开发出来，该技术利用活的上皮细胞弹性散射的光，能够在不进行组织处理的情况下对细胞和组织的微纳结构进行定量表征。这项技术将应用于将活上皮细胞的超微结构和形态变化与与肿瘤发展相关的特定分子事件联系起来，确定细胞组织和分子事件如何相互关联并影响癌症的发展，并评估这些发现在检测和诊断结肠癌前病变和早期癌变方面的有用性。在这些研究中，将利用结肠癌的实验模型(偶氮甲烷处理的大鼠)和人体组织。为了使光散射光谱成像的发展成为可能，将建立非均匀组织结构光散射的现实解析和数值模型，并将识别活的上皮细胞中光散射特征的来源。该项目的长期成果之一将是开发一种新的光学技术，对结肠癌患者进行风险分层，并对结肠癌和潜在的其他类型的癌症进行非侵入性诊断。该教育计划的目标是将医学成像课程的传统工程和物理方面与当代生物学和医学的这些方面相结合。为了实现这一目标，将开发医学成像课程的创新部分。这一部分将包括三门新的综合学科交叉课程：光学成像与显微镜、高级物理光学和医学成像临床经验。该课程将把物理和工程原理与光学成像和其他成像方式的生物和临床应用联系起来。此外，学生还将通过轮换使用医学成像广泛使用的各种临床子专业来学习如何在临床实践中使用医学成像。

0238903BackmanUnder this CAREER award, the advances of optical spectroscopy and imaging will be bridged to those of molecular biology to investigate the dynamics of the alterations of the organization of epithelial cells undergoing precancerous and early cancerous transformations. A novel spectroscopic imaging technique that utilizes light elastically scattered by living epithelial cells and enables quantitative characterization of the cell and tissue micro- and nano-architecture without tissue processing will be developed. This technique will be applied to correlate the ultrastructural and morphological changes in the living epithelial cells with specific molecular events associated with the development of neoplasia, to establish how the cell organization and molecular events are interrelated and affect the development of cancer, and to evaluate the usefulness of these findings for the purposes of the detection and diagnosis of precancerous and early cancerous transformations in the colon. In these studies, experimental model of colon carcinogenesis (azoxymethane-treated rats) and human tissues will be utilized. To enable the development of the light scattering spectroscopic imaging, realistic analytical and numerical models of light scattering by inhomogeneous tissue structures will be developed, and the origins of light scattering signatures in the living epithelial cells will be identified. One of the long-term outcomes of this project would be the development of a novel optical technique to risk-stratify patients for colon neoplasia and to non-invasively diagnose colon and, potentially, other types of cancer. The objective of the educational plan is to integrate the traditional engineering and physical aspects of the medical imaging curriculum with these of the contemporary biology and medicine. To achieve this goal, an innovative component of the medical imaging curriculum will be developed. This component will consist of three new integrative interdisciplinary courses: Optical Imaging and Microscopy, Advanced Physical Optics, and Clinical Experience in Medical Imaging. The curriculum will bridge the physical and engineering principles with the biological and clinical applications of optical imaging and other imaging modalities. Furthermore, students will learn how the medical imaging is used in clinical practice by rotating through various clinical sub-specialties where medical imaging is extensively used.