Center for Biomedical OCT Research and Translation

产品说明：（申请人提供）：光学相干层析成像（OCT）已经发展成为一种强大的显微技术，在生物学和临床医学中有着广泛的应用。它可以安全地用于以高分辨率对生物组织进行成像，并且可以容易地集成用于对内部器官进行成像的柔性窄直径光纤探头。最近的进展使OCT成像速度提高了近两个数量级，从而能够在大视场内进行显微三维成像，这是传统成像或组织学无法提供的能力。从整个生物和临床应用范围来看，OCT技术带来的机会是巨大的。然而，最先进的OCT技术尚未广泛应用于生物和临床领域。现有的几个商业系统没有整合最新的进展，也不允许定制新的生物医学应用。此外，OCT的技术复杂性是有限数量的技术学术研究小组之外的实施和创新的障碍，这些小组一直专注于生物学和医学中潜在应用的狭窄领域。本拟议资源的首要动机是解决尖端OCT仪器和技术的可及性不足问题。我们建议通过创新新的技术能力来满足这一需求，这些技术能力受到重大生物学和临床挑战的激励，并通过直接合作促进翻译。为了启动资源，我们启动了六个驱动生物医学项目（DBP），并通过广泛的讨论，共同确定了将产生重大生物和临床影响的具体技术项目。可以为一个以上的设计业务计划服务或代表协同组合的项目被认为对“资源”的初步努力特别有吸引力。选定的项目自然分为三个核心主题领域：先进的结构成像，功能和成分对比，以及混合成像模式。

DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant): Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has evolved into a powerful microscopy technique for a broad range of applications in biology and clinical medicine. It can safely be used to image biological tissue with high resolution and can easily integrate flexible, narrow diameter optical fiber probes for imaging internal organs. Recent advances have increased OCT imaging speeds by nearly two orders of magnitude, enabling microscopic, three-dimensional imaging over large fields-of-view, a capability that cannot be provided by conventional imaging or histology. Viewed across the entire range of biological and clinical applications, the opportunity presented by OCT technology is immense. State-of-the-art OCT technology, however, is not widely available to the biological and clinical communities. The few commercial systems that are available don't integrate recent advances and don't permit customization to new biomedical applications. Additionally, the technical complexity of OCT is a barrier to implementation and innovation outside of a limited number of technical academic research groups and these groups have been focused on a narrow sector of the potential applications in biology and medicine. The overriding motivation of this proposed Resource is to address the deficient accessibility of cutting-edge OCT instrumentation and technology. We propose to meet this need through the innovation of new technical capabilities that are motivated by significant biological and clinical challenges, and through translation, facilitated by direct collaboration. To launch the Resource, we have initiated six driving biomedical projects (DBPs) and through extensive discussions have jointly identified specific technical projects that will have significant biological and clinical impact. Projects that could serve more than one DBP or that represented a synergistic combination were identified to be particularly attractive for the initial efforts of the Resource. The selected projects naturally fall into three core thematic areas: advanced structural imaging, functional and compositional contrast, and hybrid imaging modalities.