I-Corps: Label-free optical imaging of the lymphatic system for anatomical pathology, image-guided surgery, and disease screening

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于，它可以潜在地提高癌症患者的存活率，并提高许多专业医生的工作效率。I-Corps项目旨在探索一种技术在解剖病理学、术中成像、术中诊断和非侵入性癌症筛查方面的应用。淋巴系统对人体健康极其重要，因为它负责免疫功能。然而，传统上很难将淋巴系统可视化，因为它是半透明的，流动非常缓慢。这个项目探索了一种技术的机会，这种技术可以在没有任何染料或标签的情况下可视化淋巴系统。在解剖病理学中，病理学家可以潜在地使用它来发现更多的淋巴结，以评估癌症的分期，并帮助提高生存率。在术中成像中，心胸外科医生和整形外科医生可以利用它更快、更准确地找到单个淋巴结或淋巴管。在非侵入性筛查中，医生可以潜在地使用它来评估患者的淋巴结状况，作为疾病指标。这个I-Corps项目是基于一种先进的光学成像技术，利用淋巴系统和周围脂肪之间的自然对比。它不需要注射或制备步骤。成像对比纯粹是基于化学成分的对比。在小鼠实验中，这项技术可以通过完整的皮肤看到几乎所有的浅表淋巴结。在监测小鼠淋巴结对癌症和疫苗的反应时，早在注射后9小时就观察到免疫反应。在人体标本试点研究中，观察到人体淋巴结被脂肪包围，对比度极高。该技术可用于解剖病理学、术中成像和无创筛查。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is that it can potentially improve the survival rate of cancer patients and increase work productivity of physicians from a number of specialties. This I-Corps project aims to explore the applications of a technology for anatomical pathology, intra-operative imaging, intra-operative diagnosis, and noninvasive cancer screening. The lymphatic system is extremely important to human health because it is responsible for immune functions. However, it has been traditionally difficult to visualize the lymphatic system because it is translucent and flows very slowly. This project explores opportunities for a technology that visualizes the lymphatic system without any dye or label. In anatomical pathology, pathologists can potentially use it to find more lymph nodes to evaluate cancer staging and help improve survival rates. In intra-operative imaging, cardiothoracic surgeons and plastic surgeons can potentially use it to find individual lymph nodes or lymphatic vessels faster and with higher accuracy. In non-invasive screening, physicians can potentially use it to evaluate the lymph node conditions of patients as a disease indicator.This I-Corps project is based on a cutting-edge optical imaging technique that exploits the natural contrast between the lymphatic system and the surrounding fat. It does not require an injection or preparation step. The imaging contrast is purely based on the contrast in chemical composition. In mice experiments, this technology can visualize almost all the superficial lymph nodes through the intact skin. When monitoring mouse lymph node responses to cancer and vaccines, immune responses as early as 9 hours after injection were observed. In human specimen pilot studies, human lymph nodes surrounded by fat were observed with extremely high contrast. This technology may be translated to use in anatomical pathology, intra-operative imaging, and noninvasive screening.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.