Several groups have reported the development of dual modality Gamma camera/optical imagers, which are useful tools for investigating biological processes in experimental animals. While previously reported dual modality imaging instrumentation usually employed a separated gamma camera and optical imager, we designed a detector using a position sensitive photomultiplier tube (PSPMT) that is capab...

We utilize a recently developed optical imaging method based on Fourier processing with Gabor-like filters to detect changes in light scattering resulting from alterations in mitochondrial structure in endothelial cells undergoing apoptosis. Imaging based on Gabor filters shows a significant decrease in the orientation of subcellular organelles at 60 to 100 minutes following apoptosis induction...

Molecular imaging has rapidly emerged as a discipline with the potential to impact fundamental biomedical research and clinical practice. Within this field, optical imaging offers several unique capabilities, based on the ability of cells and tissues to effect quantifiable changes in the properties of visible and near-infrared light. Beyond endogenous optical properties, the development of mole...

X-ray mammography, the current gold standard for breast cancer detection, has a 20% false-negative rate (cancer is undetected) and increases in younger women with denser breast tissue. Diffuse optical imaging (DOI) is a safe (nonionizing), and relatively inexpensive method for noninvasive imaging of breast cancer in human subjects (including dense breast tissues) by providing physiological info...

High-resolution imaging in turbid media has been limited by the intrinsic compromise between the gating efficiency (removal of multiply-scattered light background) and signal strength in the existing optical gating techniques. This leads to shallow depths due to the weak ballistic signal, and/or degraded resolution due to the strong multiply-scattering background--the well-known trade-off betwe...

New developments in fluorophores as well as in detection methods have fueled the rapid growth of optical imaging in the life sciences. Commercial widefield microscopes generally use arc lamps, excitation/emission filters and shutters for fluorescence imaging. These components can be expensive, difficult to maintain and preclude stable illumination. Here, we describe methods to construct inexpen...

Optical sources in the visible region immediately adjacent to the near-infrared biological optical window are preferred in imaging techniques such as spectroscopic optical coherence tomography of endogenous absorptive molecules and two-photon fluorescence microscopy of intrinsic fluorophores. However, existing sources based on fiber supercontinuum generation are known to have high relative inte...

The process of optical imaging and the use of a glass lens have been hitherto inseparable since it is the lens that is responsible for mapping incoming rays to form an image. While performing this critical role, the lens, by virtue of its geometry and materials composition, presents constraints on the size, weight, angular field of view, and environmental stability of an optical imaging system ...

The compact size, mechanical flexibility, and growing functionality of optical fiber and fiber optic devices are enabling several new modalities for imaging the mammalian nervous system in vivo. Fluorescence microendoscopy is a minimally invasive fiber modality that provides cellular resolution in deep brain areas. Diffuse optical tomography is a non-invasive modality that uses assemblies of fi...

Activatable fluorescent probes share the unique feature of being turned on only under specific conditions: they are "silent" when not interacting with a specific target protein, microenvironment, or reactive species. Several activatable fluorescence probes have demonstrated their potential in cell biology study, disease study and diagnosis, and even in the rapidly expanding field of image-guide...