Motility Contrast for Endogenous Multi-functional Imaging of Tissue

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0756005NolteThis proposal will develop the first three-dimensional motility assays applied to three dimensional tissues that retain the relevant molecular signaling of in vivo tissue but with the advantages of working in vitro. To accomplish this objective they will use motility contrast imaging (MCI), which is a new short-coherence imaging approach that detects sub-cellular nanoscale motion as macroscopic dynamic speckle that acts as a novel endogenous contrast agent. While functional imaging at the molecular level usually requires tags or reporter molecules, function associated with motility would provide a multi-probe functional imaging approach that requires no tags. This endogenous multi-functional imaging is the long-range goal of this proposal. The proposed work is in the context of tissuebased drug screening that is performed in vitro with possible future extensions in vivo. The proposal emphasizes cytoskeletal and anti-mitotic drugs that directly influence motility in the cell.