I-Corps: Multimodal imaging platform to image bioenergetics in live tissue

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a high-resolution reflectance imaging platform that can measure the oxygen levels in tissues. The proposed platform that may be integrated into other imaging platforms. The imaging platforms that are currently available in the market provide information about tissue oxygenation and metabolism from the same field of view.

These two metrics may provide critical information about the state of tissue, which may aid in the treatment and management of diseases such as cancer, ischemia-reperfusion injury, Alzheimer’s disease, and obstructive sleep apnea. Developing better therapeutics to target these diseases demands a better understanding of tissue bioenergetics in vivo.

Ultimately, successful development and commercialization of this imaging platform could provide a new look at tissue that helps improve treatment and management of disease.

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a high-resolution, hyper-spectral dark field reflectance imaging platform that may be integrated into other modes of imaging to provide multi-modal spatiotemporal information from the same field of view. The initial focus of this research is to integrate the platform into a two-photon microscope to provide quantitative measures of two critical tissue-level metrics - microvascular oxygenation and cellular metabolism.

There is increasing evidence that measurement of only one of these metrics does not provide direct information about the other and that measuring the spatiotemporal relationship between vascular oxygenation and cellular metabolism is important for determining long-term outcomes in diseased tissue.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.