Development of advanced microscopy tools for pathology

该博士项目旨在利用光学显微镜的最新进展，开发病理学，特别是临床组织病理学的新功能，使用开源硬件和软件实现，以便这些新功能可以在低收入和中等收入国家实施和维护。为此，该学生将基于我们在帝国理工学院实验室开发的openFrame平台开发一个开源的明场和荧光显微镜，并将开发和评估超分辨率显微镜和高光谱成像模块。前者将基于我们的easySTORM方法，该方法将在载玻片扫描显微镜中实现，我们将探索聚类分析以提供定量读数。后者将用于分离多种免疫荧光标记，以实现成本效益高的空间蛋白质组学，例如，用于最小的临床抗体诊断面板，并探索自身荧光无标记诊断能力。我们还将探索定量相位成像和偏振分辨成像作为免疫荧光和基于自身荧光的读出的补充读出。

This PhD project aims to leverage recent advances in optical microscopy to develop new capabilities for pathology, particularly clinical histopathology, implemented using open-source hardware and software such that these new capabilities could be implemented and maintained in Low and Middle Income Countries. To this end the student will develop an open source brightfield and fluorescence microscope based on the openFrame platform developed in our laboratory at Imperial and will develop and evaluate modules for super-resolved microscopy and hyperspectral imaging. The former will be based on our easySTORM approach, which will be implemented in a slide-scanning microscope and for which we will explore cluster analysis to provide quantitative readouts. The latter will be applied to unmix multiple immunofluorescence labels for cost-effective spatial proteomics, e.g., for use with minimal diagnostic panels of clinical antibodies, and to explore autofluorescence for label-free diagnostic capability. We will also explore quantitative phase imaging and polarisation-resolved imaging as complementary readouts to immunofluorescence and autofluorescence -based readouts.