CURIE 2008: Optics in Biomedical Engineering:
Using Light to Study Live Cells and Organisms
Faculty: Professor Chris Schaffer
Project Team: Dr. Nozomi Nishimura, John
Nguyen, Nate Rosidi, Flor Medina, Angela Wong, Fabian Canas, Jennifer Shum, and
Joan Zhou
Advances in
Biomedical Engineering are often made possible by the fusion of many different
fields of science, technology and engineering. In this project, the CURIE
Scholars will learn how optical technologies can be used to study and measure
blood flow in a live person. Maintenance of adequate blood flow is essential
for healthy physiology. Measurement of
the volume, speed, and oxygenation of blood flow can all serve as important
medical diagnostics. Optical techniques can be used to make such measurements
of blood properties noninvasively, a significant feature for medical
diagnostics as well as research applications.
The 2008 CURIE
Scholars will learn about the physics of light as well as how optics can be
used to study and make images of blood flow and other properties of blood. They
will also learn about the physiology of the circulatory system and the
fundamentals of fluid flow in the vasculature. CURIE scholars will also be given
the challenge of constructing several different optically-based tools to image
blood cells and vasculature, quantify blood flow and blood oxygenation, and
make other measurements in the lab. The samples will range from their own
fingertips to the brains of live rodents.
The students will
be broken up into small teams, which will each use a different technology to
measure different aspects of the microvasculature and blood circulation.
Opticalintrinsic imaging, which relies on the color changes between oxygenated
and deoxygenated hemoglobin to measure blood oxygenation, is a commonly used
tool by researchers and also by neurosurgeons. Pulse oximetry uses this same
color change as well as the fluctuations in blood flow induced by the beating
heart to measure oxygen saturation in arterial blood. Laser Doppler Flowmetry
and Laser Speckle Contrast Analysis can measure the speed of blood flow using
fluctuations in laser light brightness caused by the motion of red blood cells.
Properties such as the polarization of light can be used to measure the
microscopic motion of individual red blood cells, while high resolution imaging
methods, such as laser scanning confocal microscopy, enable the sub-cellular
features of blood cells to be visualized. Finally, two-photon microscopy is a
research tool that can be used to look at blood flow in single capillaries deep
in living tissues such as the brain. At the end of the project, the groups will
compare their methods and results and discuss which techniques are best for
various medical diagnostic and research needs.
The CURIE Scholars
will experience how engineers learn about a medicalor research problem, gather
the tools and technologies to address these problems, and put it all together
to generate a working system that can have an impact on human health and
medicine as well as enable new directions for future research.
