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  • Volume 8, Issue 2
  • Volume 8, Issue 2

    Fluorescence

    BiOS/PHOTONICS WEST 2015: Translational Research award winners tackle clinical need

    March 24, 2015
    At the Translational Research Lunchtime Forum during Photonics West 2015's Biomedical Optics Symposium (BiOS), four research projects were recognized as having particularly high...
    Image courtesy of Steve Mabon and Tom Misteli, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD
    An indirect immunofluorescence image of cells in interphase and mitosis. Presplicing factors are stained red and chromatin stained blue.
    Fluorescence

    SOLID-STATE LIGHT SOURCES/FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY: Hybrid approach lets solid-state sources light up fluorescence

    March 23, 2015
    Like other applications, fluorescence microscopy wants the tantalizing flexibility of solid-state lighting. But adapting low-cost lighting to the ubiquitous compound microscope...
    1503bow Pollaro 02 Cancer Cell
    Fluorescence

    LIVE-CELL IMAGING: Noninvasive 3D cell imaging

    March 23, 2015
    A new optical microscopy approach combines holography and rotational scanning to overcome traditional optical microscopy limitations and enable 3D tomographic exploration of living...
    Indications for clinical use of Bioptigen's Envisu system include the evaluation of ophthalmic tissue in routine clinical examinations and as an aid in the diagnosis of conditions that affect the optical scattering properties of ocular tissue.
    Optical Coherence Tomography

    OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY/OPHTHALMOLOGY: Intraoperative OCT improves ophthalmic surgery

    March 23, 2015
    True integration of optical coherence tomography (OCT) into surgical microscopy is giving eye surgeons a valuable new view of their work—and the opportunity to make critical adjustments...
    (Image courtesy of Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum)
    FIGURE 1. This fiber-optic microscope (a) can be inserted into a patient's esophagus to distinguish healthy (b) from cancerous tissue (c).
    Fluorescence

    FIBER-OPTIC MICROSCOPY: Bent on disease detection: Fiber optics makes miniature microscopy more flexible

    March 23, 2015
    Fiber-optic microscopy is promising for very early cancer detection, surgical guidance, and as a complement to standard pathology.

    More content from Volume 8, Issue 2

    FIGURE 1. At SPIE Photonics West 2015, Hamamatsu's booth featured a double-track toy car racing game setup that involved two 'racer' participants, who would each wear an electronic headband incorporating a NIRS optical probe able to wirelessly send signals to one of the cars on the track.
    Spectroscopy

    Think fast!

    March 23, 2015
    Can you control objects with your brain? Visitors to the Hamamatsu Photonics booth during SPIE Photonics West 2015 could—and did, with a little help from a system based on near...
    Microscopy

    NEUROSCIENCE: Two-photon microscopy inventors win Brain Prize

    March 23, 2015
    Four scientists have been awarded the world's most valuable neuroscience prize, The Brain Prize, for the invention and development of two-photon microscopy.
    Noninvasix's optoacoustic-based probe monitors cerebral venous oxygenation in the superior sagittal sinus of the emerging baby's skull, to accurately assess the amount of oxygen a baby is receiving.
    Biomedicine

    PHOTOACOUSTICS: Optoacoustic method aims to improve fetal monitoring during delivery

    March 23, 2015
    A novel solution based on photoacoustics for monitoring fetal heart rate monitors cerebral venous oxygenation in the superior sagittal sinus to quickly and directly detect the...
    Lihong Wang of Washington University in St Louis (WUSTL) won the Britton Chance award at Photonics West 2015 for 'outstanding lifetime contributions' in the development and application of photoacoustics and photon transport modeling.
    Fluorescence

    BiOS/PHOTONICS WEST 2015: Fascination and celebration at BiOS 2015

    March 23, 2015
    The Biomedical Optics Symposium (BiOS) at SPIE Photonics West 2015 served both to acknowledge significant achievement and anticipate excitement yet to come.
    Spectroscopy

    SURFACE-ENHANCED RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY/FORENSICS: Raman spectroscopy method analyzes dyed hair to help solve crimes

    March 23, 2015
    Hair samples found at crime scenes can impact forensic investigations, but current sample analysis methods-DNA testing and microscopy comparisons-are time-intensive and often ...
    (Image courtesy of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases [NIAMS])
    X-ray images, which are currently used to diagnose and monitor osteoarthritis, don't show cartilage loss, but fluorescence imaging allows direct viewing of disease progression—and thus promises earlier diagnosis and better treatment.
    Fluorescence

    NEAR-INFRARED FLUORESCENCE: Fluorescence promises earlier diagnosis, better treatment for osteoarthritis

    March 23, 2015
    A new study demonstrates that near-infrared fluorescence can be used to monitor changes in osteoarthritis.
    The Google Glass app and illuminator allows analysis of chlorophyll concentration quickly, inexpensively, and without harming the plant.
    Bioimaging

    OPTICAL ANALYSIS: Noninvasive app captures chlorophyll content quickly, cheaply

    March 23, 2015
    In the company of a handheld device, a new Google Glass app enables quick, noninvasive analysis of a plant's health.
    The finished Low-Cost Motility Tracking System (LOCOMOTIS) adapted by Adam Lynch to study snail immune systems.
    Microscopy

    LIGHT MICROSCOPY/CELL BIOLOGY: $250 DIY light microscope tracks cell motility

    March 23, 2015
    Light microscopy systems for measuring cell motility can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But a PhD student at Brunel University London's College of Health and Life Sciences...
    (Image courtesy of the Looger Lab, HHMI/Janelia)
    In this larval zebrafish brain, neurons that were active while the fish was swimming freely were permanently marked in magenta.
    Fluorescence

    FLUORESCENCE IMAGING: Probe permanently marks neurons engaged during specific activity

    March 23, 2015
    A new fluorescent protein lets scientists shine a light on an animal's brain to permanently mark neurons that are active at a particular time.
    Barbaragoode2
    Fluorescence

    Biophotonics in the bigger picture

    March 23, 2015
    If you're as old as I am (or almost), you might remember the postcards people sent out pre-Internet when they changed addresses.