Center for Biomedical OCT Research and Translation

描述：(申请人提供)：光学相干断层扫描(OCT)已经发展成为一种强大的显微技术，在生物学和临床医学中有广泛的应用。它可以安全地用于高分辨率的生物组织成像，并可以很容易地集成用于成像内部器官的灵活、窄直径的光纤探头。最近的进展使OCT成像速度提高了近两个数量级，使人们能够在大视野内进行显微三维成像，这是传统成像或组织学无法提供的能力。从生物和临床应用的整个范围来看，OCT技术带来的机会是巨大的。然而，最先进的OCT技术并没有广泛地应用于生物和临床社区。现有的为数不多的商业系统没有集成最新的进展，也不允许为新的生物医学应用定制。此外，OCT的技术复杂性是在有限数量的技术学术研究小组之外实施和创新的障碍，这些小组一直专注于生物学和医学中潜在应用的一小部分。这一拟议资源的首要动机是解决尖端OCT仪器和技术缺乏可获得性的问题。我们建议通过创新新的技术能力来满足这一需求，这些新的技术能力是由重大的生物和临床挑战推动的，并通过翻译，由直接合作促进。为了启动资源，我们启动了六个驱动力生物医学项目(DBP)，并通过广泛的讨论共同确定了将产生重大生物和临床影响的具体技术项目。可以为不止一个发展伙伴提供服务的项目或代表协同结合的项目被确定为对资源最初的努力特别有吸引力。选定的项目自然分为三个核心主题领域：高级结构成像、功能和成分对比度以及混合成像方式。

DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant): Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has evolved into a powerful microscopy technique for a broad range of applications in biology and clinical medicine. It can safely be used to image biological tissue with high resolution and can easily integrate flexible, narrow diameter optical fiber probes for imaging internal organs. Recent advances have increased OCT imaging speeds by nearly two orders of magnitude, enabling microscopic, three-dimensional imaging over large fields-of-view, a capability that cannot be provided by conventional imaging or histology. Viewed across the entire range of biological and clinical applications, the opportunity presented by OCT technology is immense. State-of-the-art OCT technology, however, is not widely available to the biological and clinical communities. The few commercial systems that are available don't integrate recent advances and don't permit customization to new biomedical applications. Additionally, the technical complexity of OCT is a barrier to implementation and innovation outside of a limited number of technical academic research groups and these groups have been focused on a narrow sector of the potential applications in biology and medicine. The overriding motivation of this proposed Resource is to address the deficient accessibility of cutting-edge OCT instrumentation and technology. We propose to meet this need through the innovation of new technical capabilities that are motivated by significant biological and clinical challenges, and through translation, facilitated by direct collaboration. To launch the Resource, we have initiated six driving biomedical projects (DBPs) and through extensive discussions have jointly identified specific technical projects that will have significant biological and clinical impact. Projects that could serve more than one DBP or that represented a synergistic combination were identified to be particularly attractive for the initial efforts of the Resource. The selected projects naturally fall into three core thematic areas: advanced structural imaging, functional and compositional contrast, and hybrid imaging modalities.