I-Corps: High Content Label Free Imaging of Tissue using a Novel Laser Source

I-Corps：使用新型激光源对组织进行高内涵无标签成像

• 批准号: 1931891
• 负责人: Stephen Boppart
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-06-15 至 2020-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1931891&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Content; Label; Free; Imaging

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project encompasses laser science, microscope technology, and the entire spectrum of biological imaging of live tissues, cells, and microorganisms. This includes basic life science and environmental research where advanced microscopes and cell measurement instruments are used routinely to collect data from cell cultures, animals, and human specimens. Most of these measurements currently require the use of expensive chemical or biological "labels" to identify the targets of interest. This labeling process is time consuming, expensive, and often results in irreversible damage to the specimen. This technology largely eliminates the need for these labels, substantially reducing both the cost and time required to perform experiments. This means that precious public and private research funds will accomplish more. In addition, the potential commercialization plan for this technology includes offering it to existing microscope and instrument manufacturers so that it can readily be integrated into existing systems.This I-Corps project and its intellectual merit involves an advanced technology for rapidly capturing images of live tissue at microscopic resolution, and immediately extracting a wealth of information about the viability and function of the cells and tissue from those images, all without the need for chemical staining or tissue preparation. This technology is the result of over a decade of research conducted at a major university where the research team created a new programmable laser light source that tailors and launches short pulses of light to interact with specific molecular components within the live tissue, essentially making blood vessels, different cells, and cancerous tissue "light-up" with unique light signatures. By combining this laser source with an advanced microscope and software also developed by the research team, a next-generation imaging device has been developed that could dramatically improve the accuracy and speed, and lower the cost of histology, which is currently used to microscopically assess dead, fixed, and stained tissue sections.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.

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力包括激光科学，显微镜技术以及活组织，细胞和微生物的整个生物成像光谱。这包括基础生命科学和环境研究，其中常规使用先进的显微镜和细胞测量仪器从细胞培养物，动物和人类标本中收集数据。目前，大多数这些测量需要使用昂贵的化学或生物“标签”来识别感兴趣的目标。这种标记过程是耗时的，昂贵的，并往往导致不可逆的损害标本。这项技术在很大程度上消除了对这些标签的需求，大大降低了进行实验所需的成本和时间。这意味着宝贵的公共和私人研究基金将取得更大的成就。 此外，这项技术的潜在商业化计划包括将其提供给现有的显微镜和仪器制造商，以便它可以很容易地集成到现有的系统中。这个I-Corps项目及其智力价值涉及一种先进的技术，用于以显微镜分辨率快速捕获活组织的图像，并立即从这些图像中提取关于细胞和组织的活力和功能的大量信息，所有这些都不需要化学染色或组织制备。 这项技术是在一所主要大学进行的十多年研究的结果，研究小组创造了一种新的可编程激光光源，该光源可以定制并发射短脉冲光，与活组织内的特定分子成分相互作用，基本上使血管，不同的细胞和癌组织“点亮”独特的光特征。通过将这种激光源与研究团队开发的先进显微镜和软件相结合，开发了下一代成像设备，可以显着提高准确性和速度，并降低组织学成本，目前用于显微镜评估死亡，固定，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进行评估，被认为值得支持和更广泛的影响审查标准。