Biomelecular spectroscopy and analysis

本实验室的研究主要集中在基于几种类型的拉曼光谱的生物分析和生物物理方法及其应用。拉曼光谱是一种光学非弹性散射技术，可以用来确定水环境中生物分子的浓度和构象。目前的发现拨款提案主要集中在近红外拉曼显微光谱及其在活细胞和组织的化学测绘/表征方面的应用。我们最近在使用这种方法对人类胚胎干细胞的多能性进行非侵入性分析方面取得了一些进展。我们建议将这些应用扩展到鉴定和选择分化细胞中出现的表型，特别是那些来自人类诱导的多能干细胞的表型，这些表型以前还没有被光谱研究过。我们还将探索拉曼显微光谱在红细胞和血小板细胞分析中的其他应用，目标是识别与标准形态分析相当的特定光谱标记，以提供更强大、快速和信息更丰富的方案，用于监测生产和储存过程中的血液产品质量。我的实验室建立领导地位的另一个领域是开发专门的光谱处理和分析方法，用于信号与噪声的增强、去卷积、背景校正和化学/结构动力学分析。这些方法能够从细胞和组织等复杂系统中提取更多信息，从而帮助解释数据。该提案描述了相关的未来研究活动及其应用，这些应用影响到我的研究计划的所有领域，但也促进了涉及医学成像应用的新维度的开辟。我们的目标是开发迭代图像处理方法，以提高计算机断层扫描(CT)图像的清晰度和对比度，以帮助诊断准确性。这项研究计划将产生有助于促进再生医学、血液服务和诊断医学进步的新技术。

Research in my laboratory is focused mainly on bioanalytical & biophysical methods and applications based on several types of Raman spectroscopy, which are optical inelastic scattering techniques that can be used to determine concentrations and conformations of biomolecules in aqueous environments. The current Discovery Grant proposal focuses mainly on near-infrared Raman microspectroscopy and its application to chemical mapping/characterization of live cells & tissues. We have recently made several advances in the non-invasive analysis of pluripotency in human embryonic stem cells using this approach. We are proposing to extend these applications to the identification and selection of emerging phenotypes in differentiating cells, particularly those deriving from human induced pluripotent stem cells, which have not been studied spectroscopically before. We will also explore other applications of Raman microspectroscopy for cellular analysis of red blood cells and blood platelets, the goal being to identify specific spectral markers equivalent to standard morphological assays to provide a more robust, rapid and informative protocol for monitoring blood product quality during production and storage. Another area in which my laboratory has established leadership is the development of specialized spectral processing and analysis methods for signal-to-noise-enhancement, deconvolution, background correction, and analysis of chemical/structural dynamics. These methods enable extraction of more information from complex systems such as cells and tissues and thereby aid interpretation of the data. The proposal describes related future research activities with applications that impact all areas of my research program, but that also facilitate opening up a new dimension involving applications to medical imaging. Our objective here is to develop iterative image processing methods for improving the clarity and contrast of computed tomography (CT) images to aid diagnostic accuracy. This research program will yield new technologies that will contribute toward advances in regenerative medicine, blood services and diagnostic medicine.