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

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力包括激光科学、显微镜技术以及活组织、细胞和微生物的全部生物成像。这包括基础生命科学和环境研究，在这些研究中，通常使用先进的显微镜和细胞测量仪器从细胞培养、动物和人类标本中收集数据。目前，这些测量大多需要使用昂贵的化学或生物“标记”来识别感兴趣的目标。这种标记过程既耗时又昂贵，而且往往会对标本造成不可逆转的损害。这项技术在很大程度上消除了对这些标签的需求，大大减少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成就。此外，这项技术的潜在商业化计划包括向现有的显微镜和仪器制造商提供它，以便它可以很容易地集成到现有的系统中。这个i-Corps项目及其智力优势包括一种先进的技术，可以快速捕获显微分辨率的活组织图像，并立即从这些图像中提取有关细胞和组织的生存和功能的丰富信息，所有这些都不需要化学染色或组织准备。这项技术是在一所主要大学进行的十多年研究的结果，在那里，研究团队创造了一种新的可编程激光光源，该光源定制并发射短脉冲光，以与活组织中的特定分子成分相互作用，本质上使血管、不同细胞和癌症组织以独特的光信号“发光”。通过将这种激光光源与先进的显微镜和研究团队开发的软件相结合，已经开发出了下一代成像设备，该设备可以显著提高精度和速度，并降低组织学的成本，目前组织学用于对死亡、固定和染色的组织切片进行显微评估。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.