CAREER: Quantitative Phase Imaging of Cells and Tissues

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0846660PopescuThe proposal focuses on extending the boundaries of quantitative phase imaging (QPI), which has the unique ability to quantify subtle changes in both structure and dynamics of cells and tissues without using contrast agents, to high-impact applications, including neuroscience, cancer imaging, and cell membrane biophysics. QPI technologies already developed by the PI include: 1) an interferometric microscopy technique, termed Jones Phase Microscopy (JPM), capable of extracting the spatially-resolved Jones polarization matrix associated with transparent and anisotropic samples, 2) a Fourier transform light scattering (FTLS) experimental approach that combines optical microscopy, holography and light scattering for studying inhomogeneous and dynamic media and 3) a phase contrast imaging technique referred to as phase contrast tomography (PCT) that can retrieve submicron thick sections from a 3D cell or tissue sample. Research activities and methods were described in four areas: 1) nanoscale cell membrane dynamics of red blood cells, 2) viscoelasticity of brain cells using FTLB, 3) imaging dynamic transport and cell-to-cell communication in live neurons, and 4) refractive index mapping of healthy and diseased tissue. The red blood cell studies include developing an analytic model to extract membrane rheology from fluctuation data in collaboration with Alex Levine, UCLA, and a study of out-of-non-equilibrium dynamics focused particularly on determining the effects of ATP mediated processes. The viscoelasticity of brain cells study, in collaboration with Martha Gillete, UIUC, will focus on differences between neuron and glial cells. The transport studies will focus on non-contact measurement of neuronal action potentials and the dynamic imaging of organelle traffic. The refractive index studies proposed extend preliminary work on cm wide blood smears to whole organ scale imaging. The measurements made will be extended to studies of refractive index changes during cancer progression in collaboration with Steve Boppart, UIUC.