CAREER: Low Coherence Light Scattering for Biophotonics

这个职业发展计划的重点是利用光子学领域的光学知识进行生物医学工程应用。该研究计划的目标是开发低相干干涉测量（LCI）的新应用，用于检测细胞和组织散射的光，作为一种具有亚波长灵敏度的确定其结构和功能特征的方法。光学技术具有非侵入性、非电离性和易于通过简单、经济有效的方法实现的优点，同时避免了对固定剂和染色剂及其相关人工制品的需要。研究计划基于三个活动：1。为了进一步发展角度分辨LCI (a/LCI)，这是一种原位测量细胞形态的方法，其有效性已经在实验室得到验证。a/LCI技术作为早期癌症诊断的巨大潜力，将通过实施和应用强大的a/LCI仪器来实现临床和实验室对细胞和组织的调查。傅里叶域LCI是一种利用光谱学探测生物组织亚表面结构的新方法。这种方法是一种比a/LCI更简单的光学方案，但迄今为止只在组织幻影上进行了演示。进一步的实验将有助于评估其潜在的能力。一种基于主动稳定干涉仪测量散射光相位的新显微镜方案的开发，用于细胞生物学应用。这项技术将使精确测量细胞的生物物理特性成为可能。该教育计划将通过开发新的生物光子学课程和新的教材，将光子学纳入生物医学工程课程。具体活动包括开发现代显微镜课程，将生物光子学纳入现有的BME课程，并为从高中到研究生阶段的学生开发独立的生物光子学项目。这些活动将利用一个新的生物光子学教学实验室，该实验室将容纳最先进的教学设备。该教育项目还将受益于杜克大学外展项目的帮助，该项目将通过独立项目向高中生介绍生物光子学，并通过让访问学生参与首席研究员实验室的研究项目，向代表性不足的群体介绍生物光子学。

0348204WaxThis CAREER Development Plan focuses on utilizing optics knowledge from the field of photonics for biomedical engineering applications. The goal of the research plan is to develop new applications of low coherence interferometry (LCI) for detecting light scattered by cells and tissues as a method of determining their structural and functional features with sub-wavelength sensitivity. Optical techniques offer the advantages of being non-invasive, non-ionizing and readily implemented by simple, cost-efficient means while avoiding the need for fixatives and staining agents and their associated artifacts. The research plan is based on three activities: 1. To further develop Angle-resolved LCI (a/LCI), a method for measuring cell morphometry in situ, the efficacy of which already has been validated in the laboratory. The a/LCI technique has great potential as an early-cancer diagnostic that will be realized by implementing and applying robust a/LCI instruments for both clinical and laboratory investigations of cells and tissues.2. The validation and development of Fourier-domain LCI, a novel method for probing sub-surface structure in biological tissues using optical spectroscopy. This approach is a simpler optical scheme than a/LCI but to date has only been demonstrated on tissue phantoms. Further experiments will help to evaluate its potential capabilities.3. The development of a novel microscopy scheme based on using an actively stabilized interferometer to measure the phase of scattered light for cell biology applications. This technique will enable precision measurements of the biophysical properties of cells. The education plan will incorporate photonics into the biomedical engineering curriculum by developing a new Biophotonics course and new teaching materials. The specific activities include development of a modern microscopy course, incorporation of Biophotonics into existing BME courses and development of independent Biophotonics projects for students ranging from high school to the graduate level. The activities will take advantage of a new Biophotonics teaching laboratory that will house state of the art equipment for instructional use. The education program also will benefit from the help of the outreach program at Duke University that will enable introduction of Biophotonics to high school students, through independent projects and to underrepresented groups by involving visiting students in research projects in the principal investigator's laboratory.