This is a seminar hosted jointly with the electrical & systems department as well as the imaging science progam.

Computationally accelerated 4D nonlinear optical microscopy

Abstract: High dimensional (x-y-t-λ) microscopy image acquisition is generally slow, collecting temporal (t) and spectral (λ) channels in sequential images. This temporal and spectral bottleneck has limited the applicability of imaging methods with high molecular specificity, including fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and hyperspectral coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. Multiphoton FLIM of autofluorescent metabolic cofactors NAD(P)H and FAD can be used for optical metabolic imaging, and hyperspectral CARS microscopy provides biochemical specificity based on the vibrational energy of chemical bonds that can be used to identify common biomolecules such as specific lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Combined, these methods enable precise characterization of biological samples. Yet, their applications to live biomedical imaging have been limited due to slow acquisition, often requiring 2-10 mins for a single microscopic field of view. To overcome this challenge, computational methods can be employed in real-time to specifically excite and acquire only select data of interest, enabling significantly accelerated imaging. This is possible for the acquisition of time-resolved photon counts for FLIM, resulting in a 40× speedup over traditional technologies, and for the acquisition of custom hyperspectral components in CARS microscopy, resulting in a 50× speedup in differentiation of biochemical signatures. Overall, these methods demonstrate the possibilities for designing smarter imaging systems to address issues with acquisition time and data throughput without compromising capabilities.

Bio: Janet Sorrells received her PhD in Bioengineering in 2024 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and recently joined the Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research is in the field of biophotonics, specifically focused on advancing the technology and applications of label-free nonlinear optical microscopy. For her work developing a novel method for fast photon counting, she was awarded the 2023 Illinois Innovation Award and the 2023 JenLab Young Investigator Award.

This is a seminar hosted jointly with the electrical & systems department as well as the imaging science progam.

Computationally accelerated 4D nonlinear optical microscopy

Abstract: High dimensional (x-y-t-λ) microscopy image acquisition is generally slow, collecting temporal (t) and spectral (λ) channels in sequential images. This temporal and spectral bottleneck has limited the applicability of imaging methods with high molecular specificity, including fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and hyperspectral coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. Multiphoton FLIM of autofluorescent metabolic cofactors NAD(P)H and FAD can be used for optical metabolic imaging, and hyperspectral CARS microscopy provides biochemical specificity based on the vibrational energy of chemical bonds that can be used to identify common biomolecules such as specific lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Combined, these methods enable precise characterization of biological samples. Yet, their applications to live biomedical imaging have been limited due to slow acquisition, often requiring 2-10 mins for a single microscopic field of view. To overcome this challenge, computational methods can be employed in real-time to specifically excite and acquire only select data of interest, enabling significantly accelerated imaging. This is possible for the acquisition of time-resolved photon counts for FLIM, resulting in a 40× speedup over traditional technologies, and for the acquisition of custom hyperspectral components in CARS microscopy, resulting in a 50× speedup in differentiation of biochemical signatures. Overall, these methods demonstrate the possibilities for designing smarter imaging systems to address issues with acquisition time and data throughput without compromising capabilities.

Bio: Janet Sorrells received her PhD in Bioengineering in 2024 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and recently joined the Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research is in the field of biophotonics, specifically focused on advancing the technology and applications of label-free nonlinear optical microscopy. For her work developing a novel method for fast photon counting, she was awarded the 2023 Illinois Innovation Award and the 2023 JenLab Young Investigator Award.