At the early stage, these projects will heavily involve bio-instrumentation, optical design, system calibration, and Monte Carlo modeling of light propagation in biological tissues.
1.Diffuse correlation spectroscopy for neurocognitive function monitor
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) has been recognized as a novel biomarker of progressive cognitive decline such that a decrease in CBF often associates with a decline in neurocognitive function . Therefore, quantitative and continuous measurement of CBF can detect physiological events experienced Yet, there is currently no well-established, non-invasive method to monitor CBF.
The aims of this project is to build and implement a portable time-domain diffuse correlation spectroscopy (TD-DCS) (show in A) and its correct models to extract blood flow index (B & C).
Related Articles:
V. N. Du Le, and V.J. Srinivasan. "Beyond diffuse correlations: deciphering random flow in time-of-flight resolved light dynamics," Optics Express 28, 11191-11214 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.385202
O. Kholiqov, W. Zhou, T. Zhang, V. N. Du Le and V.J. Srinivasan, " Time-of-flight resolved light field fluctuations reveal deep human tissue physiology," Nature Communications, 11(1), 1-15 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14228-5
Esophageal cancer is responsible for about 15,530 deaths in the U.S. each year. Intraluminal brachytherapy has been commonly used both as a sole treatment and as a boost in radiotherapy of esophageal cancer. In intraluminal brachytherapy of esophageal cancer, a white light (WL) endoscope is commonly used to visualize the tumor and to define the proximal and distal borders of the tumor (in addition to two orthogonal X-ray images) where the radiation seed (i.e. Ir-192) is parked. WL imaging often provides insufficient vascular contrast of pre-cancerous mucosa , leading to high false negative rate. Given the high demand of endoscopic exam and procedure, there is a need to improve the current WL endoscopy
The objective is to develop a portable bronchoscope, enabling better visualization and detection of tumor margins during esophageal brachytherapy by integrating narrow band filters for contrast and oxygenation, and a pulsed laser for FLIM to localize tumorous collagen regions.
Related Articles
C. Roa, V. N. Du Le*, M. Mahendroo, J. C. Ramella-Roman, "Auto-detection of cervical collagen and elastin in Mueller matrix polarimetry microscopic images using K-NN and Semantic Segmentation classification " Biomedical Optics Express 12(4), (2021). https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.420079
Z. Nie, V. N. Du Le, D. Cappon, J. Provias, N. Murty, J. E. Hayward, T. J. Farrell, M. S. Patterson, W. McMillan, and Q. Fang. “Integrated Time-resolved Fluorescence and Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy Instrument for Intraoperative Detection of Brain Tumor Margin,” J. Selected Topic in Quantum Electronics, IEEE 22(3): 6802109 (2016). doi: 10.1109/JSTQE.2015.2510964