MRI:Development of Coherent Confocal Light Absorption & Scattering Spectroscopic Scanning Microscope

这个项目的总体目标是开发和测试一种新的主要研究仪器-相干共聚焦光吸收和散射光谱扫描显微镜(或C类扫描显微镜)，用于非侵入性动态监测亚细胞结构，可用于生物医学研究的多个领域。该仪器将用相干宽带超连续聚焦激光束扫描生物细胞，并使用共焦装置收集弹性散射光。收集的光由各种亚细胞细胞器和结构弹性散射，将提供活细胞不同区域的形态、生化和物理性质及其功能的实时信息。与现有的非相干类仪器相比，这种新的C级仪器将提供显著更高的光谱对比度。C级仪器的设计将利用商业上可用的奥林巴斯共焦显微镜系统的几个主要部件，该系统经过适当改装，以执行C级仪器。该仪器的开发将在细胞生物学、生殖生物学、产科、神经科学和药物发现等不同领域产生广泛影响，这些领域都与这项技术非破坏性地观察细胞内功能过程的潜力有关。该仪器的另一个重要应用将是为分子成像设计具有特定光谱特性的光学纳米探测器。使用C级扫描显微镜，可以在所有关键阶段逐步监测人类胚胎的发育、质量和对环境因素的反应。因为C级测量是无损的，不需要外源化学物质，所以给定的体外胚胎可以随着时间的推移进行监测，仍然适合植入。用目前可用的技术，这些进展研究是不可能的。

0922876PerelmanThe overall objective of this project is to develop and test a novel major research instrument, Coherent Confocal Light Absorption and Scattering Spectroscopic Scanning Microscope (or C-CLASS Scanning Microscope), for non-invasive dynamic monitoring of subcellular structure which can be used in multiple areas of biomedical research. This instrument will scan biological cells with a coherent broadband supercontinuum focused laser beam and collect elastically scattered light using a confocal arrangement. Collected light, elastically scattered by various subcellular organelles and structures, will provide real time information about the morphological, biochemical and physical properties of various regions of the living cell and their function.This new C-CLASS instrument will provide dramatically higher spectral contrast compared to existing incoherent CLASS instruments. The design of the C-CLASS instrument will utilize several major parts of a commercially available Olympus confocal microscope system suitably modified to perform C-CLASS. Development of this instrument will have broad impact in such diverse areas as cell biology, reproductive biology, obstetrics, neuroscience and drug discovery that are all linked by the potential of this technique to observe functional intracellular processes nondestructively. Another important application of this instrument will be in the area of designing optical nanoprobes with specific spectroscopic characteristics for molecular imaging. Human embryo development, quality, and response to environmental factors, might be monitored progressively at all critical stages, using the C-CLASS Scanning Microscope. Because the C-CLASS measurement is nondestructive and requires no exogenous chemicals, a given embryo in vitro could be monitored over time and still be suitable for implantation. These progression studies are not possible with currently available techniques.