Time Resolved Ocular Fluorometer

描述(申请人提供)：这个项目的目的是开发一种通用的仪器，用于测量眼睛和眼睛内部的荧光寿命。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活眼内和活眼上的电解质、pH、葡萄糖、氧气等，最终测量人类的活眼。这将在眼科研究中有明显的应用，并最终可能在疾病诊断中应用。在第一阶段，我们将论证这项技术在眼睛中的可行性，以及表征眼睛自发荧光的荧光寿命。这一特征对于计划未来的项目将是重要的，因为这种自体荧光通常会对外源荧光传感器产生“噪声”。当然，在其他研究应用中，眼睛自发荧光也可能是目标。晶状体自身荧光已被证明是糖尿病的一个指标，糖尿病眼的角膜自身荧光和荧光视网膜脂褐素参与了老年性黄斑变性(AMD)的发病机制。我们的总体目标将是生产一种标准化的仪器，并开发使用荧光寿命传感器在眼睛内或眼睛上进行测量的协议。一个关键目标将是标准化和校准控制，以便在不同机器上得到的结果具有可比性。此外，我们将以足够的灵活性设计这种仪器，以便我们可以随着新的荧光寿命探测器的开发而增加功能，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.