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New Bioimaging Technique Is Fast and Economical
New method quickly, economically, and accurately tracks multiple in vivo interactions

August 18, 2017

By Mary L. Martialay

A new approach to optical imaging makes it possible to quickly and economically monitor multiple molecular interactions in a large area of living tissue – such as an organ or a small animal; technology that could have applications in medical diagnosis, guided surgery, or pre-clinical drug testing. The method, which is detailed in Nature Photonics, is capable of simultaneously tracking 16 colors of spatially linked information over an area spanning several centimeters, and can capture interactions that occur in mere billionths of a second.

“We have developed a smart way to acquire a massive amount of information in a short period of time,” said Xavier Intes, a professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Our approach is faster and less expensive than existing technology without any compromise in the precision of the data we acquire.”

As its name implies, optical imaging uses light to investigate a target. In biomedical applications, optical imaging has many advantages over techniques such as MRI and PET, which use magnetism and positron emissions to acquire images inside of living tissue.

The method the Intes lab developed makes use of advanced optical imaging techniques – fluorescence lifetime imaging paired with foster resonance energy transfer – to reveal the molecular state of tissues. In fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), molecules of interest are tagged with fluorescent “reporter” molecules which, when excited by a beam of light, emit a light signal with a certain color over time that is indicative of their immediate environment. Reporter molecules can be tuned to offer information on environmental factors such as viscosity, pH, or the presence of oxygen. FLIM is ideal for the thick tissues of a body because it relies on time information, rather than light intensity, which degrades significantly as it travels through tissue. Researchers also used Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET), which determines close proximity between two similarly tagged molecules – such as a drug and its target – based on an energy transfer that occurs only when the tagged molecules are delivered into the diseased cells for maximal therapeutically efficacy.

However, while the FLIM-FRET method generates a signal rich in information, collecting that signal quickly and economically is problematic. Current methods rely on expensive cameras, which can image only one reporter at a time, and scanning the subject can take hours as the camera collects information from its full field of vision.

To overcome this obstacle, the researchers dispensed with cameras and instead used a single-pixel detection method combined with a mathematical sampling technique (based on a Hadamard transform) that allowed them to collect sufficient relevant information in 10 minutes to construct a precise image. The detection method can collect information on 16 spectral channels simultaneously, and three detection devices positioned around the sample provided spatial information used to construct a three-dimensional image.

“This is a new platform, a new option in macroscopy, and we think it will have traction in multiple applications in the biomedical arena,” said Intes.

“Compressive hyperspectral time-resolved wide-field fluorescence lifetime imaging” appeared in Nature Photonics and can be found using the DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2017.82. Intes was joined on the research, which was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, by Rensselaer graduate students Qi Pian, Ruoyang Yao, and Nattawut Sinsuebphon.

Intes’ research is enabled by the vision of The New Polytechnic, an emerging paradigm for higher education which recognizes that global challenges and opportunities are so great they cannot be adequately addressed by even the most talented person working alone. Rensselaer serves as a crossroads for collaboration — working with partners across disciplines, sectors, and geographic regions — to address complex global challenges, using the most advanced tools and technologies, many of which are developed at Rensselaer. Research at Rensselaer addresses some of the world’s most pressing technological challenges — from energy security and sustainable development to biotechnology and human health. The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research, in its innovative pedagogy, and in the lives of students at Rensselaer.

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is America’s first technological research university. For nearly 200 years, Rensselaer has been defining the scientific and technological advances of our world. Rensselaer faculty and alumni represent 85 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 8 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Inventors, and 5 members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, as well as 6 National Medal of Technology winners, 5 National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With 7,000 students and nearly 100,000 living alumni, Rensselaer is addressing the global challenges facing the 21st century—to change lives, to advance society, and to change the world. To learn more, go to www.rpi.edu.

https://news.rpi.edu/content/2017/08/18/new-method-quickly-economically-and-accurately-tracks-multiple-vivo-interactions

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Long list of Stafford's and friends and we must also check all Honeywell International Inc links where Susan S Stafford has ties ....a chemist.....and seems like Richard Sinise (chemist) of KCM builds the trend that chemists have strong links to PS Targeting knowledge

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131887553

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George Poppler and Booz Allen Hamilton .....I think he likes science more than most out there and damn, if I only had one of them Dept of Homeland Security type Databases ...but I have dozens of ideas and think back to Australia. Heck...ever hear some faint short wave radio bouncing off the ionosphere around the globe and did I just hear the words "buy Peregrine" ?? : )

I know that someone out there must know that much new information must be ready soon to truly bring The Enlightenment Age of Disease front and center....and Dept of Homeland Security must find it of interest because changes in the landscape are coming

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Healthcare Reform: A Look Ahead to the Future of Law & Healthcare Policy in a Changing World (Jason Hanson- Ohana Biosciences)
June 26,2017
https://alumni.duke.edu/events/healthcare-reform-look-ahead-future-law-healthcare-policy-changing-world
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Formation of Blood Clot on Biomaterial Implants Influences Bone Healing

Hoi Ting Shiu
Ben Goss
Cameron Lutton
Ross Crawford
Yin Xiao

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ten.teb.2013.0709?journalCode=teb#/doi/abs/10.1089/ten.teb.2013.0709?journalCode=teb



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The Power of Analogies
January 5, 2016
Booz Allen, Data Science

Practitioners and data scientists have developed their own jargon, such that communication and collaboration can prove difficult across domains. For example, doctors might find it difficult to communicate to data scientists why some data (e.g., shape and structural organization of a tumor in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan) are especially important for a given diagnosis (metastatic potential of the tumor), and how this can be reflected in the data structure. Likewise, data scientists might struggle to explain to physicians how or why a given analytical tool (e.g., Bayesian networks) might be effective for uncovering useful information in patient records (changes in prescription medicine use over time as a predictor of future illness). The problem is only compounded when insurance companies, patient advocates, regulatory agencies, and other stakeholders weigh in.
How do we bridge the divide? One simple solution is to employ the universal “language” that helps us close communication gaps in everyday life: analogies. For two decades I (George) was a professor of cell and molecular biology, and my students and I routinely used analogies to discuss concepts that exceeded their limited command of cell biology jargon. We compared cells to busy cities teeming with “workers” (proteins) that worked in specific locations in the city; we discussed what kinds of communication networks regulated how teams of workers functioned together to complete complex tasks. Analogies helped cut through jargon at multiple levels: Instead of discussing the impact of guanine nucleotide dephosphorylation on the activation state of a protein, we’d talk about how cutting the leg off a stool would impact one’s ability to sit on it.
I employed the same strategy for discussing my academic research with colleagues in other fields. To explain how sets of genes are deployed in a specific temporal order to build a brain, my mathematics (a.k.a., data scientist) colleagues and I conceived of a “virtual house building project” where genes are represented by construction workers (e.g., “Bob’s been working a lot of overtime, looks like he’s found a new friend on the nightshift.”). Similarly, a computer scientist friend of mine explained graph theory to me by using an analogy of a faculty committee meeting, mapping the administrative/managerial relationships between committee members to help explain who sits next to whom. We proposed that similar hierarchical rules applied to where cells are positioned in a healthy tissue, and looked for instances where the “seating arrangement” was unexpected, to predict whether injured human tissue structures were healing (informal discussion at the end of a meeting) or becoming cancerous (an argument).
My favorite colleague was a faculty member in electrical engineering, who was so adept at translating jargon into analogies we called him The Universal Adaptor; he spawned a lot of productive collaborations by simply planting the analogy seeds that linked us all together. In each case, he was able to tap into our intuitive understanding of familiar situations and provide us with a built-in set of relationships between the important elements.
For the Data Science Bowl, Booz Allen and Kaggle must serve as Universal Adaptors. Head of Kaggle Competitions, Will Cukierski, is particularly adept at using analogies. To communicate tradeoffs in scoring statistics for the Data Science Bowl competition he uses golf, comparing the relative merits of focusing on “getting on the green” versus “shortening the distance from the hole.” In describing that the competition leaderboard has plenty of room for improvement, Will dons his virtual chef’s hat, and says “there’s a lot of meat left on this bone.”
We use analogies to translate across domains every day. What are your Universal Translator analogies? Tweet #DataSciBowl!
—Written by George Plopper

http://www.datasciencebowl.com/power_of_analogies/