Lecture “Multimodal non-linear imaging for biomedical applications”

Dr.Michael Schmitt is a Research Associate Friedrich-Schiller University Jena. Here he visited our laboratories, he met scientists working on a similar topic and he gave lecture “Multimodal non-linear imaging for biomedical applications”. In recent years, a broad portfolio of spectroscopic methods has been researched that allows a qualitative and quantitative assessment of biochemical information ex vivo and even in vivo without the additional use of exogenous contrast agents.
It emerged to be very advantageous to combine several spectroscopic contrast mechanisms in a multimodal approach. In this contribution it was shown that multimodal nonlinear imaging, using different methods such as coherent Raman scattering (CARS, SRS), two-photon excited autofluorescence (TPEF), multi-photon excited fluorescence lifetime imaging (MPE-FLIM) and second harmonic generation (SHG), represents a powerful tool for the label-free characterization of the molecular composition of biological and biomedical target structures (e.g. tumour cells, tissue samples, cell organelles, marker molecules such as drugs, organs, etc.).
The application focus is on molecular and functional diagnostics in medicine and the life sciences. Utilizing machine learning based image processing algorithms the nonlinear imaging data can be translated to bio-medical meaning full information. Furthermore, concepts of integrating the investigated multimodal approaches into compact clinically usable automated systems (clinical microscope, handheld probes) with high TRL levels are presented. The clinical focus is on intraoperative tumour disease diagnostics, as this represents a high medical need for early diagnosis and therapy.
The lecture was visited by 20 scientists. After the lecture, a fruitfull discussion with the scientists took place.