Miniature Optical Endoscopes for Early-Stage Cancer Detection

Jennifer Barton
(University of Arizona)
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Date: Aug 5, 2020
Description:
With multiple mechanisms of contrast, high sensitivity, high resolution, and the possibility to create miniature, inexpensive devices, light-based techniques have tremendous potential to positively impact cancer detection and survival. Many organs of the body can be reached in a minimally-invasive fashion with small flexible endoscopes. Some organs, such as the fallopian tubes and ovaries, require extremely miniature (sub-mm) and flexible endoscopes to avoid tissue cutting. Additionally, some modalities, such as side-viewing optical coherence tomography, are naturally suited to miniature endoscopes, whereas others like forward-viewing reflectance or fluorescence imaging, may require performance tradeoffs. The development of small, robust and fiber-delivered advanced light sources, miniature fiber bundles, and sensitive detectors has aided the development of novel miniature endoscopes. In this talk, I will discuss our recent advancements in endoscope design for multimodality optical early detection of ovarian cancer.
Further Information:
Jennifer Barton is currently Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. She also serves as Director of the BIO5 Institute, a collaborative research institute dedicated to solving complex biology-based problems. Barton develops miniature endoscopes that combine multiple optical imaging techniques, particularly optical coherence tomography and fluorescence spectroscopy. She evaluates the suitability of these endoscopic techniques for detecting early cancer development in patients and pre-clinical models. She has a particular interest in the early detection of ovarian cancer, the most deadly gynecological malignancy. She is a fellow of SPIE- the International Optics Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Created: Thursday, August 6th, 2020