Pushing the limits of biomedical optics endoscopy through the development of dedicated instrumentation

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The past 25 years have witnessed the emergence of a wide array of novel medical imaging modalities exploiting the interaction between laser light and biological tissues. The techniques are now used in biology for observing tissues at architectural (using large field-of-view modalities such as optical coherence tomography), cellular (using confocal microscopy) or molecular (using fluorescence or nonlinear techniques) levels. Translation to the clinical world will allow clinicians to perform minimally invasive diagnoses. While biomedical optics techniques have a resolution and contrast unsurpassed by conventional medical imaging instruments (such as X rays, MRI, PET), their penetration depth is too shallow to perform visualization of internal organs without developing small and flexible instruments known as endoscopes. Additionally, while fluorescent agents may be added to study biological processes in small animals, very few are approved for use in humans. We must therefore rely mostly on endogeneous molecules (eg fluorophores naturally present in human tissues) to obtain specific contrast.