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    • Volume 4, Issue 2

    More content from Volume 4, Issue 2

    Image courtesy of Shasha Chong
    In the work by the Harvard team, laser fields v1 and v2 are both on resonance with the absorption of the molecule.1 One beam affects the absorption of the other beam by depleting the ground state of the molecule.
    Optical detection at single-molecule sensitivity, a capability important for molecular biology, was originally accomplished at cryogenic temperatures.
    March 1, 2011
    Barbaragoode2
    Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special issue of BioOptics World. In addition to the usual range of BioOptics World content (starting on p. 32), you will find here an "issue within...
    March 1, 2011
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    The InstaSpec ISX CCD and ISX IR scientific cameras are designed for spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy.
    March 1, 2011
    Reaching into astronomy's toolbox, professor Lihong Wang at Washington University in St. Louis has invented a guide star for biomedical imaging.
    March 1, 2011
    Physics and neuroscience researchers at UCLA have created what may be the world's fastest two-photon excitation microscope for in-vivo 3-D imaging.
    University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) physics professor Katsushi Arisaka thinks that he and his neuroscience colleagues have created the world's fastest two-photon excitation...
    March 1, 2011
    Using both flow cytometry and optical microscopy, researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center have discovered that a protein involved in cystic fibrosis (CF) also regulates...
    March 1, 2011
    The work of scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, reported in Nature Methods, may eventually help explain the influence of gene expression on...
    March 1, 2011
    Micropilot analyzes low-res images, identifies cells or structures of interest, and then automatically instructs the microscope to start an experiment.
    A novel computer program can quickly learn what a scientist is looking for and then automatically perform complex microscopy experiments when it detects corresponding cell features...
    March 1, 2011
    Using silver nanorod arrays to enhance the signal produced by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), University of Georgia researchers have succeeded in detecting, with more...
    March 1, 2011
    Video-rate stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) depicts the structural components of tissue—lipids (red), proteins (green), and water (blue)—in imaging the sebaceous glad wrapping around a hair in the epidermis of a mouse.
    Culminating 11 years of work on medical applications of coherent Raman microscopy, Harvard University researchers have achieved stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) imaging on humans...
    March 1, 2011
    (Image courtesy of Dr. Igor Siwanowicz and Olympus America)
    FIGURE 1. Dr. Igor Siwanowicz garnered First Prize for his image of a Daddy Longlegs taken using confocal microscopy. The sample was stained to visualize nuclei and F-actin, and shows not only the eyes' lenses (two large ovals), but also the retinas and optic nerves (trailing down at center back).
    The Olympus BioScapes competition has honored images and movies of human, plant and animal subjects as captured through light microscopes for the past eight years. Entries are...
    March 1, 2011
    Two 40X histology images of in-vivo skin samples on a guinea pig after seven postoperative days show a well-opposed surgical incision and no significant inflammatory cell infiltration. However, serial sections of the area 'welded' using a 1535 nm femtosecond laser (top left) show almost complete wound healing in the epidermis and granulation tissue in the dermis, while the sutured control (left) serial sections show very minimal wound healing in epidermis and minimal granulation tissue in dermis.
    A number of groups have demonstrated laser tissue welding (LTW)—a technique that aims to make obsolete the practice of stitching wounds with needle and thread.
    March 1, 2011
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    Citing "advances in the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT)," the Ernst Abbe Fund announced the recipient of the 2011 Carl Zeiss Research Award for outstanding work in internation...
    March 1, 2011
    Three-dimensional PALM images of two nuclei containing lamin proteins. Defects in these proteins are responsible for a range of conditions, including muscular dystrophy and premature aging. (a) Shows a projection view of the two nuclei labeled with pa-m Cherry1 lamin B1. Color indicates axial depth. (b) An xz slice along the dotted line. (c) A zoom-in of the boxed region in (a). Arrows indicate regions of the membrane resolved in xy to < 100 nm.
    Several optical imaging researchers at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) are part of a new wave of investigators pressing new materials and...
    March 1, 2011
    The SPIE has announced a new award to honor the memory of Britton Chance, who 'fueled the growth of biomedical optics and photonics throughout the world.'
    Now that it represents fully 45% of the educational content at Photonics West, the annual Biomedical Optics Symposium (BiOS) dominates this industry-leading annual event.
    March 1, 2011
    The upcoming Laser World of Photonics Congress 2011 (May 23-26; Munich, Germany) will build upon its initiative of bringing together biomedical instrumentation users with technology...
    March 1, 2011
    (Image courtesy Tactile Systems Inc.)
    FIGURE 1: A new optical imaging approach begins to answer the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) challenge regarding evidence to support use of pneumatic compression devices (PCDs), such as the Flexitouch garment from Tactile Systems.
    Lymphedema, a side effect of treatment for many cancers, can become permanently debilitating if not treated. But in the absence of methods to directly and quantitatively assess...
    March 1, 2011
    FDA-approved trials will seek to learn whether the safety of Cornell University-developed quantum dots—already proven for mice—applies to humans.
    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first clinical trial of quantum-dot technology in humans.
    March 1, 2011
    (Image courtesy University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign)
    FIGURE 1. The width of the point-spread functions for interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) are shown as a function of distance from focus.
    Depth of field? Resolution? Traditionally, using OCT meant choosing between these two critical parameters. But interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM), an advance...
    March 1, 2011
    FIGURE 1. Funding from the National Cancer Institute's SBIR program enabled Praevium to develop a multi-wavelength laser source for optical cancer imaging (in this case, diffuse optical imaging of breast tumors).
    Today's OCT technology would be lagging and its market would be far less promising, if not for government backing. Several national institutes support OCT, funding remains steady...
    March 1, 2011
    FIGURE 1. In-vivo, real-time 4D images of a human fingertip show (a) skin and fingernail connection; the full volume rendering is applied here, giving a real size of 4 × 4 ×1.32 mm, considering the large topology range of the nail connection region. The fingerprint can be seen in a (b) side view with 'L' volume rendering frame; and (c) top view, where the surface is virtually peeled by the image frame and the inner sweat duct are clearly visible. The volume size for (b) and (c) is 2 × 2 × 0.66 mm. The images are displayed at 10 volumes/second and 12,500 A-scans/volume. The major dermatologic structures such as epidermis (E), dermis (D), nail fold (NF), nail root (NF) and nail body (N) are easily distinguishable.
    To reach its full potential, OCT technology must also be able not just to capture, but also to process and display imagery in real time.
    March 1, 2011
    NinePoint Medical, Inc. has raised $33 million—in a Series A round led by Third Rock Ventures and Prospect Venture Partners—to further develop its in-vivo OCT pathology platform...
    March 1, 2011
    FIGURE 1. Comparing OCT (left) and intravenous ultrasound (IVUS) imagery of the same artery demonstrates the vast difference in resolution.
    In 20 years, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has grown from a new invention to a robustly developed technology, and received approval for application in a number of medical...
    March 1, 2011
    (Image courtesy Jennifer Kehlet Barton, University of Arizona)
    An OCT image, combined with spectroscopic autofluorescence information, depicts a colon. The peak emission intensity has been mapped to a false color scale, where blue = 430 nm and red = 490 nm. The autofluorescence emission is red-shifted in the region of the tumor, in the center of the image.
    An interdisciplinary team at the University of Arizona has combined OCT and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) in a single endoscopy device—and reports higher sensitivity and specificity...
    March 1, 2011