NSF Award
0922876
0922876<br/>Perelman<br/><br/>The overall objective of this project is to develop and test a novel major research instrument, Coherent Confocal Light Absorption and Scattering Spectroscopic Scanning Microscope (or C-CLASS Scanning Microscope), for non-invasive dynamic monitoring of subcellular structure which can be used in multiple areas of biomedical research. This instrument will scan biological cells with a coherent broadband supercontinuum focused laser beam and collect elastically scattered light using a confocal arrangement. Collected light, elastically scattered by various subcellular organelles and structures, will provide real time information about the morphological, biochemical and physical properties of various regions of the living cell and their function.<br/><br/>This new C-CLASS instrument will provide dramatically higher spectral contrast compared to existing incoherent CLASS instruments. The design of the C-CLASS instrument will utilize several major parts of a commercially available Olympus confocal microscope system suitably modified to perform C-CLASS. Development of this instrument will have broad impact in such diverse areas as cell biology, reproductive biology, obstetrics, neuroscience and drug discovery that are all linked by the potential of this technique to observe functional intracellular processes nondestructively. Another important application of this instrument will be in the area of designing optical nanoprobes with specific spectroscopic characteristics for molecular imaging. Human embryo development, quality, and response to environmental factors, might be monitored progressively at all critical stages, using the C-CLASS Scanning Microscope. Because the C-CLASS measurement is nondestructive and requires no exogenous chemicals, a given embryo in vitro could be monitored over time and still be suitable for implantation. These progression studies are not possible with currently available techniques.
