Biomelecular spectroscopy and analysis

我实验室的研究主要集中在基于几种类型的拉曼光谱的生物分析和生物物理方法和应用上，拉曼光谱是光学非弹性散射技术，可用于确定水环境中生物分子的浓度和构象。 目前的发现补助金提案主要集中在近红外拉曼显微光谱及其在活细胞和组织的化学绘图/表征中的应用。 我们最近在使用这种方法对人类胚胎干细胞的多能性进行非侵入性分析方面取得了一些进展。 我们建议将这些应用扩展到鉴别和选择分化细胞中出现的表型，特别是那些来自人诱导多能干细胞的表型，这些表型以前没有进行过光谱学研究。 我们还将探索拉曼显微光谱学在红细胞和血小板细胞分析中的其他应用，目标是确定与标准形态学检测相当的特定光谱标记物，以提供更稳健，快速和信息丰富的方案，用于在生产和储存过程中监测血液制品质量。 我的实验室在另一个领域建立了领导地位，是开发专门的光谱处理和分析方法，用于信噪比增强，去卷积，背景校正和化学/结构动力学分析。 这些方法能够从复杂系统（如细胞和组织）中提取更多信息，从而有助于解释数据。 该提案描述了相关的未来研究活动，其应用将影响我的研究计划的所有领域，但也有助于开辟一个涉及医学成像应用的新领域。 我们的目标是开发迭代图像处理方法，以提高计算机断层扫描（CT）图像的清晰度和对比度，以帮助诊断的准确性。 这项研究计划将产生新技术，有助于促进再生医学，血液服务和诊断医学的进步。

Research in my laboratory is focused mainly on bioanalytical & biophysical methods and applications based on several types of Raman spectroscopy, which are optical inelastic scattering techniques that can be used to determine concentrations and conformations of biomolecules in aqueous environments. The current Discovery Grant proposal focuses mainly on near-infrared Raman microspectroscopy and its application to chemical mapping/characterization of live cells & tissues. We have recently made several advances in the non-invasive analysis of pluripotency in human embryonic stem cells using this approach. We are proposing to extend these applications to the identification and selection of emerging phenotypes in differentiating cells, particularly those deriving from human induced pluripotent stem cells, which have not been studied spectroscopically before. We will also explore other applications of Raman microspectroscopy for cellular analysis of red blood cells and blood platelets, the goal being to identify specific spectral markers equivalent to standard morphological assays to provide a more robust, rapid and informative protocol for monitoring blood product quality during production and storage. Another area in which my laboratory has established leadership is the development of specialized spectral processing and analysis methods for signal-to-noise-enhancement, deconvolution, background correction, and analysis of chemical/structural dynamics. These methods enable extraction of more information from complex systems such as cells and tissues and thereby aid interpretation of the data. The proposal describes related future research activities with applications that impact all areas of my research program, but that also facilitate opening up a new dimension involving applications to medical imaging. Our objective here is to develop iterative image processing methods for improving the clarity and contrast of computed tomography (CT) images to aid diagnostic accuracy. This research program will yield new technologies that will contribute toward advances in regenerative medicine, blood services and diagnostic medicine.