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Title:
Abstract:
Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is an optical imaging technique that non-invasively visualizes cellular morphologic details of tissue. Despite its potential for improving patient care, its widespread clinical adoption is hindered by the high device cost, large physical footprints, and slow imaging speed. These limitations largely stem from the light sources and scanning mechanisms required for conventional point-by-point image data acquisition. Slit-based spectrally-encoded confocal microscopy (S-SECM) achieves scan-free two-dimensional imaging and eliminates mechanical galvanometer scanning by using broadband line illumination and a diffraction grating to encode spatial coordinates with wavelengths. This produces a faster, cost-effective system with fewer moving parts, facilitating a robust device structure. This dissertation applies S-SECM to engineer three devices, targeting in vivo skin imaging for clinical cancer diagnosis applications and label-free dynamic contrast imaging of organoids for cancer research applications.
For in vivo skin imaging, two portable S-SECM systems were developed. The first integrated a rotating diffuser to reduce speckle noise without compromising imaging speed. The second system advanced this architecture toward clinical translation by miniaturizing the device using a custom objective lens and custom optomechanical fixtures, while adding a widefield imaging module to provide macroscopic navigational guidance
Finally, the third system adapts S-SECM for the label-free dynamic contrast imaging of organoids in cancer research applications. By analyzing the temporal fluctuations of the scattered signal, the system generates color-contrast maps to differentiate cellular activity levels within the organoids without staining or fluorescence imaging.
Committee:
Dr. Dongkyun Kang (Chair)
Dr. Jennifer Barton
Dr. Yeran Bai