Projects

Multiphoton Surgical Imaging

Multiphoton imaging has had a revolutionary impact on life sciences because of its ability to rapidly image living tissue at cellular resolution, but has not been accepted in clinical medicine, which continues to use conventional light microscopy techniques developed in the 19th century that are slow and cumbersome.  We design advanced high-speed two-photon imaging systems and then integrate them into clinical workflows to improve treatment of patients undergoing cancer surgery.

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Virtual Transmission Microscopy

Conventional histology is based on light microscopy of thin tissue sections stained with absorptive dyes.  These techniques, developed more than 100 years ago, are the standard for the evaluation of nearly all cancer. However, they are slow, costly, subjective and inherently analog because tissue most be fixed in formaldehyde and then cut into thin wax sections for viewing. 

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Microscopy with UV Surface Excitation (MUSE) Imaging

Microscopic evaluation of tissue pathology is typically divided between intraoperative techniques such as frozen sections analysis, which is expensive and only available in limited scenarios, and conventional paraffin embedded histology, which is available to most physicians, but requires several days delay for tissue processing.  MUSE imaging is an emerging technique that rapidly (seconds) produces histological images using ultraviolet LEDs to excite fluorescence from the surface layers of whole tissue specimens.  MUSE can be combined with virtual transmission microscopy algorithms to produce images similar to conventional histology, or can be used to extract novel sources of contrast. 

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High Speed Optoelectronics

Conventional two photon microscopy uses photomultiplier tubes which are too slow and too fragile for surgical imaging applications, where speed is critical and surgeons expect to work with the lights on.  We are developing photodetectors that enable high dynamic range imaging while being resilient to background light.

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Multiphoton Skin Biopsy Imaging

Cancer is typically diagnosed on biopsy where a small piece of tissue is removed, processed and then after several weeks delay, evaluated to determine if treatment is required.  Two photon microscopy can image small biopsy specimens in seconds, enabling real-time diagnosis of cancer in health care settings.

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High-Throughput Imaging with Parallel Scanning Multiphoton Microscopy

Parallel scanning multiphoton microscopy using non-descanned detection with custom SiPM arrays enable ultrafast imaging speeds (effective 200 MP/s) at high area coverage rates (up to 50 mm2/s). Increases in throughput from parallel scanning are valuable in surgeries where large tissues need to be evaluated in real-time to guide patient treatment.

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High-Throughput Hyperspectral Two-Photon Fluorescence Imaging

Hyperspectral detection enables dense multiplexing of many fluorescent probes but has traditionally imposed a significant cost in terms of sensitivity or imaging speed.  Silicon photomultiplier array technology enables high-speed, high-light-throughput hyperspectral imaging at low cost.

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