I-Corps: Skin autofluorescence imager for rapidly assessing skin wound healing

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发定量自身荧光成像技术，以满足皮肤伤口护理诊断信息的需求。目前，从未愈合伤口的皮肤活检中获得的诊断信息有限，并且缺乏评估愈合状态的生物标志物和工具。很少有非侵入性成像方式用于伤口中心，也没有能够实时评估细胞功能和评估伤口是否充分愈合的设备。一种能够识别活跃皮肤伤口愈合区域的皮肤自体荧光成像仪可以帮助临床医生制定治疗计划，从而降低数百万患有慢性伤口的美国人的死亡率和截肢率。所提出的成像仪依赖于所有细胞和组织固有的对比度源，也可能有其他应用，如皮肤癌和衰老。这个I-Corps项目是基于先进的成像和分析技术的发展，以评估基于细胞自身荧光的代谢功能障碍。先前的工作主要集中在老化和伤口愈合的应用上，并为使用多光子显微镜从自身荧光图像中提取相关的生化和结构信息提供了关键的见解。细胞自身荧光的光谱分离可以预测上皮细胞是静止的、增殖的还是沿着皮肤伤口边缘迁移的。一种比多光子显微镜更快、更便宜的具有高光谱能力的自体荧光成像仪已经被开发出来。目前，慢性伤口的诊断和治疗方案的评估都是通过几周内的目视检查和伤口大小测量来进行的。这种护理标准不涉及使用任何可以实时评估伤口是否主动闭合的诊断技术。所提出的技术可以区分细胞和组织中多种天然荧光分子浓度的变化，这些变化将用于预测和绘制皮肤伤口正在积极愈合或处于增殖/炎症状态的位置。结合已有的图像处理技术，可以对皮肤伤口状态进行自动分类，区分不同的伤口特征。所提出的设备将被设计为伤口中心的即时成像设备。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a quantitative autofluorescence imaging technology to address the need for diagnostic information in skin wound care. Currently, limited diagnostic information can be obtained from skin biopsies of non-healing wounds, and there is a lack of biomarkers and tools to assess healing status. Very few non-invasive imaging modalities are used in wound centers, and there is no device capable of assessing cellular function and evaluating whether wounds are adequately healing in real time. A skin autofluorescence imager capable of identifying regions of active skin wound healing may assist clinicians with their treatment plans, which could reduce the rates of mortality and amputation for the millions of Americans suffering from chronic wounds. The proposed imager relies on contrast sources that are intrinsic to all cells and tissues and may have other applications as well, such as skin cancer and aging. This I-Corps project is based on the development of advanced imaging and analysis techniques to assess metabolic dysfunction based on cellular autofluorescence. Prior work has primarily focused on aging and wound healing applications and provided key insights for extracting relevant biochemical and structural information from autofluorescence images using multiphoton microscopy. Spectral isolation of cellular autofluorescence can allow for predictions of whether epithelial cells are quiescent, proliferative, or migrating along the edge of a skin wound. An autofluorescence imager that is faster and far less expensive than multiphoton microscopy has been developed with hyperspectral capabilities. Currently, both chronic wounds diagnosis and treatment plan evaluation are performed through visual inspection and wound size measurements acquired over a period of several weeks. This standard of care does not involve the use of any diagnostic technologies that can assess whether the wound is actively closing in real-time. The proposed technology may distinguish changes in the concentrations of multiple naturally fluorescence molecules in cells and tissues that will be used to predict and map locations where skin wounds are actively healing or stuck in a proliferative/inflammatory state. Established image processing techniques can be combined with the device to automatically classify skin wound status and discriminate different wound features. The proposed device will be designed as a point-of-care imaging device for wound centers.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.