CAREER: Light-sheet Brillouin microscopy for mechanical analysis of tissue morphogenesis

马里兰州大学获得了一项奖项，以开发一种新的成像技术，光片布里渊显微镜，以测量生物细胞如何在胚胎发育过程中成长为复杂的组织。虽然以前的技术主要集中在探索组织生长的遗传和生化控制，但这项研究将提高对胚胎发育生物力学方面的理解。该项目将产生一种新的仪器，其性能和设计将通过会议，同行评审的期刊论文以及主办感兴趣的生物研究人员进行传播。该项目，在光子学，生物力学和发育生物学的接口，将提供机会，教育和培训研究生和本科生的各种技能。该项目还将用于吸引中学生参加STEM领域的活动，这些活动依赖于实践练习，在光子技术和现实生活中熟悉的应用之间建立快速联系。 虽然我们对组织生长的遗传、生物化学和分子控制的理解可以依赖于几种已建立的方法，但组织形态发生的生物力学仍然知之甚少，主要是由于缺乏合适的测量技术。该项目通过开发光片布里渊显微镜来满足这一需求，该显微镜能够以高3D分辨率在不接触的情况下映射发育中胚胎的弹性模量。布里渊显微镜已经被证明在组织和细胞生物力学方面具有影响力，但目前依赖于点扫描来构建图像，因此由于速度和损伤限制，不适合胚胎研究。该项目将开发大规模多路复用布里渊光谱分析，并将其集成到广泛使用的光片显微镜平台中，该平台已经提供了结构和功能成像，从而使形态发生的机械生物学研究能够与弹性信息，细胞/组织大小，形状和组织以及信号激活和表达模式的共定位。 该奖项也由BIO/IOS开发系统集群提供共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An award is made to the University of Maryland to develop a novel imaging technology, light-sheet Brillouin microscopy, to measure how biological cells grow into complex tissues during embryonic development. While previous technologies have mostly focused on probing genetic and biochemical control of tissue growth, this research will improve the understanding the biomechanical aspect of embryonic development. The project will generate a new instrument whose performance and design will be disseminated via conferences, peer-reviewed journal papers as well as hosting interested biological researchers. The project, at the interface of photonics, biomechanics and developmental biology, will provide opportunities to educate and train graduate and undergraduate students with a diverse set of skills. The project will also be used to attract middle-school students to STEM fields with activities relying on hands-on exercises that create quick connections between photonic technology and real-life familiar applications. While our understanding of genetic, biochemical and molecular controls of tissue growth can rely on several established methods, the biomechanics of tissue morphogenesis remains poorly understood mostly due to the lack of suitable measurement techniques. This project addresses this need by developing light-sheet Brillouin microscopy capable of mapping elastic modulus in a developing embryo without contact at high 3D resolution. Brillouin microscopy has already proven impactful in tissue and cell biomechanics, but currently relies on point-scanning to build an image and thus is not suited for embryo studies due to speed and damage limitations. This project will develop massively multiplexed Brillouin spectral analysis and integrate it in widely used light-sheet microscopy platforms, which already provide structural and functional imaging, thus enabling mechanobiology studies of morphogenesis with co-localization of elasticity information, cell/tissue size, shape and organization as well as signaling activation and expression patterns. Co-Funding for this award is also being provided by the BIO/IOS-Developmental Systems Cluster.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.