I-Corps: Add-on Brillouin Module for Confocal Microscopes

I-Corps：共焦显微镜的附加布里渊模块

• 批准号: 1835040
• 负责人: giuliano scarcelli
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1835040&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Add; Brillouin; Module; Confocal

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the introduction of a new microscopy modality, which enables non-contact mechanical mapping, and the development of the corresponding add-on module compatible to commercial confocal microscopy instruments. Confocal microscopy instruments are widely used in academia and industry but do not provide mechanical information of samples; mechanical testing instruments are also ubiquitous in both academia and industry but are contact-based. This project brings the non-contact mechanical testing capability to optical microscopy instruments. Beyond enabling traditional material characterizations with high spatio-temporal resolution, the instrument will be highly impactful in biomedical research. The past two decades have seen increasing recognition of the prominent role of the mechanical interplay between cells and their local microenvironment to regulate cell function. A widely utilized optical microscope for cell biomechanics would accelerate our understanding of mechano-chemical pathways and their role in the control of biological processes. Thus, this instrument is expected to be broadly used by biomedical researchers and material scientists in industry and academia to access cell, tissue and biomaterial mechanical properties without perturbing the sample and with high 3D resolution. This I-Corps project explores the commercialization of an add-on module for confocal microscopes that features novel Brillouin spectroscopy. Brillouin spectroscopy has been widely used for material testing and environmental sensing since the 1970's using specialized spectrometers that required 10 min to hours for a single measurement. In recent years, a new type of spectrometer was developed to improve speed of acquisition by several orders of magnitude and allowed to obtain 3D elasticity maps of biomaterials, biological cells and tissues. Thanks to the integration in commercial confocal microscopes, several highly impactful areas (e.g. stem cell lineage differentiation, malignancy transformation) will benefit from this technology as it enables gathering biomechanical information in environments and settings such as 3D microenvironments that mimic the in vivo conditions. In addition, the instrument will enable the study of cell biomechanics on microfluidic platforms in order to control microenvironment conditions. Being compatible with traditional optical microscopes, this technology can also be combined with force mapping modalities thus enabling to investigate how cells sense mechanical stimuli and transduce them into biochemical signals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该 I-Corps 项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是引入了一种新的显微镜模式，该模式能够实现非接触式机械测绘，并开发与商业共焦显微镜仪器兼容的相应附加模块。共焦显微镜仪器广泛应用于学术界和工业界，但不提供样品的力学信息；机械测试仪器在学术界和工业界也无处不在，但都是接触式的。该项目为光学显微镜仪器带来了非接触式机械测试能力。除了以高时空分辨率实现传统材料表征之外，该仪器还将在生物医学研究中产生巨大影响。在过去的二十年里，人们越来越认识到细胞与其局部微环境之间的机械相互作用在调节细胞功能方面的重要作用。广泛用于细胞生物力学的光学显微镜将加速我们对机械化学途径及其在生物过程控制中的作用的理解。因此，该仪器预计将被工业界和学术界的生物医学研究人员和材料科学家广泛使用，以在不干扰样品的情况下以高 3D 分辨率获取细胞、组织和生物材料的机械特性。 该 I-Corps 项目探索了具有新颖布里渊光谱功能的共焦显微镜附加模块的商业化。 自 20 世纪 70 年代以来，布里渊光谱已广泛用于材料测试和环境传感，使用专用光谱仪进行单次测量需要 10 分钟到几小时。近年来，开发了一种新型光谱仪，将采集速度提高了几个数量级，并能够获得生物材料、生物细胞和组织的3D弹性图。由于集成在商业共焦显微镜中，几个具有高度影响力的领域（例如干细胞谱系分化、恶性肿瘤转化）将受益于该技术，因为它能够在模拟体内条件的 3D 微环境等环境和设置中收集生物力学信息。 此外，该仪器还将能够在微流体平台上研究细胞生物力学，以控制微环境条件。该技术与传统光学显微镜兼容，还可以与力图模式相结合，从而能够研究细胞如何感知机械刺激并将其转化为生化信号。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。