I-Corps: Label-free optical imaging of the lymphatic system for anatomical pathology, image-guided surgery, and disease screening

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，它可以潜在地提高癌症患者的存活率，并提高来自多个专业的医生的工作效率。这个I-Corps项目旨在探索一项技术在解剖病理学、术中成像、术中诊断和非侵入性癌症筛查中的应用。淋巴系统对人类健康极其重要，因为它负责免疫功能。然而，传统上很难看到淋巴系统，因为它是半透明的，流动非常缓慢。该项目探索了一种无需任何染料或标签即可将淋巴系统可视化的技术的机会。在解剖学病理学中，病理学家可能会利用它来发现更多的淋巴结节，以评估癌症的分期，并帮助提高存活率。在术中成像中，心胸外科医生和整形外科医生可能会使用它来更快、更准确地找到个别淋巴结或淋巴管。在非侵入性筛查中，医生可能会使用它来评估患者的淋巴状况作为疾病指示器。这个i-Corps项目基于尖端光学成像技术，利用淋巴系统和周围脂肪之间的自然对比。它不需要注射或制备步骤。成像对比度纯粹基于化学成分的对比度。在老鼠实验中，这项技术可以通过完整的皮肤可视化几乎所有的浅层淋巴结节。当监测小鼠淋巴结对癌症和疫苗的反应时，最早在注射后9小时就观察到了免疫反应。在人体标本初步研究中，以极高的对比度观察到被脂肪包围的人体淋巴结。这项技术可以转化为用于解剖病理学、术中成像和非侵入性筛查。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 is that it can potentially improve the survival rate of cancer patients and increase work productivity of physicians from a number of specialties. This I-Corps project aims to explore the applications of a technology for anatomical pathology, intra-operative imaging, intra-operative diagnosis, and noninvasive cancer screening. The lymphatic system is extremely important to human health because it is responsible for immune functions. However, it has been traditionally difficult to visualize the lymphatic system because it is translucent and flows very slowly. This project explores opportunities for a technology that visualizes the lymphatic system without any dye or label. In anatomical pathology, pathologists can potentially use it to find more lymph nodes to evaluate cancer staging and help improve survival rates. In intra-operative imaging, cardiothoracic surgeons and plastic surgeons can potentially use it to find individual lymph nodes or lymphatic vessels faster and with higher accuracy. In non-invasive screening, physicians can potentially use it to evaluate the lymph node conditions of patients as a disease indicator.This I-Corps project is based on a cutting-edge optical imaging technique that exploits the natural contrast between the lymphatic system and the surrounding fat. It does not require an injection or preparation step. The imaging contrast is purely based on the contrast in chemical composition. In mice experiments, this technology can visualize almost all the superficial lymph nodes through the intact skin. When monitoring mouse lymph node responses to cancer and vaccines, immune responses as early as 9 hours after injection were observed. In human specimen pilot studies, human lymph nodes surrounded by fat were observed with extremely high contrast. This technology may be translated to use in anatomical pathology, intra-operative imaging, and noninvasive screening.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.