CMCA Seminar: “Optical coherence tomography: an imaging tool for mechanobiology research”

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become the optical modality of choice for label-free imaging of scattering biological tissues with resolution in the 1-10 mm range. This has facilitated widespread clinical application to the fields of ophthalmology, cardiology, oncology and dermatology; however, the application of OCT in the basic sciences is less developed. In this talk I will focus on the imaging capabilities that OCT can offer the emerging field of mechanobiology, which studies the role that mechanical cues play in both normal development and disease. Important examples include the onset and development of cancer, and the differentiation of stem cells in growth and regeneration. These areas of research rely heavily on in vitro studies of single cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions or ex vivo measurements of tissue biomechanics, and so new imaging approaches that enable a stronger connection between in vitro and in vivo behavior are needed. The talk will focus on computed OCT approaches for high‑throughput cellular-resolution volumetric imaging, and the mapping of the mechanical properties of viscoelastic biological media with optical coherence elastography (OCE). Computational adaptive optics (CAO) is a technique that leverages commonalities between OCT and digital holography to correct for defocus and other optical aberrations post-data-acquisition. We have combined CAO with aberrated optical design to optimize both resolution and depth-dependent photon collection for volumetric imaging of the dynamics of cell-ECM interactions during collective cell migration. I will also present our recent work on the development of OCE methods to reconstruct quantitative mechanical properties based on localized dynamic excitation (‘palpation’) with focused acoustic radiation forces. Finally I will highlight the role that these methods can play in spanning the in vitro–in vivo–clinical spectrum, to motivate further development of an OCT-based imaging platform for translational mechanobiology research.

About the presenter:

Dr. Steven Adie completed a BSc(Hons) in Chemical Physics in 1997 and a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2007, both from The University of Western Australia. Between his undergraduate and postgraduate studies he worked as a Research Engineer at Q-Vis Limited – a startup company that grew out of the Lions Eye Institute to commercialize solid-state laser technology for LASIK eye surgery. After completing his PhD he did a postdoc in the Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2013 he started as an Assistant Professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. His group develops novel optical imaging approaches, primarily based on optical coherence tomography, for basic science and clinical applications. Dr. Adie recently received a Discovery and Innovation Research Seed Award from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at Cornell.

Venue:
CMCA (Physics) Seminar Room 1.80