Time Resolved Ocular Fluorometer

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目的是开发一种通用仪器，用于测量眼睛内外的荧光寿命。该仪器将利用为显微镜和分析化学设计的荧光寿命探针来测量动物和人类活体眼睛内外的电解质，pH值，葡萄糖，氧气等。这将在眼科研究中有明显的应用，并可能最终应用于疾病诊断。在第一阶段，我们将证明该技术在眼睛中的可行性，并表征眼自体荧光的荧光寿命。这种特性对规划未来的项目很重要，因为这种自身荧光通常对外源性荧光传感器来说是“噪音”。当然，在其他研究应用中，眼自身荧光也可能是目标。晶状体自身荧光已被证明是糖尿病的一个指标，糖尿病眼病的角膜自身荧光和荧光视网膜脂褐素与年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）的发病机制有关。我们的总体目标是生产一种标准化的仪器，并制定使用荧光寿命传感器在眼睛内或眼睛上进行测量的方案。一个关键的目标将是标准化和校准控制，这样在不同的机器上得到的结果将是可比的。此外，我们将设计具有足够灵活性的仪器，以便我们可以在开发新的荧光寿命探针时增加功能，并且我们的客户可以开发自己的技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project will be to develop a general-purpose instrument for measuring fluorescence lifetimes on and inside the eye. This instrument will take advantage of fluorescence lifetime probes designed for microscopy and analytical chemistry to measure electrolytes, pH, glucose, oxygen and more in and on live eyes in animals and eventually humans. This will have obvious applications in eye research and may eventually have applications in disease diagnosis. During Phase I, we will demonstrate feasibility of this technique in the eye, as well as characterize the fluorescence lifetime of ocular autofluorescence. This characterization will be important to planning future projects since this autofluorescence generally will be "noise" to exogenous fluorescent sensors. Of course, in other research applications ocular autofluorescence could also be the target. Lens autofluorescence has been shown to be an indicator of diabetes, corneal autofluorescence of diabetic eye disease and fluorescent retinal lipofuscins have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Age Relate Macular Degeneration (AMD). Our overall goal will be to produce a standardized instrument and to develop protocols for using fluorescent lifetime sensors for making measurements in or on the eye. A critical goal will be standardization and calibration control, so that results made on different machines will be comparable. In addition, we will design this instrument with enough flexibility so that we can add capabilities as new fluorescence lifetime probes are developed, and our customers can develop techniques of their own.