A special continuous video loop featuring short "Lightning Talks" by our leading Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics (FIP) faculty presenting their groundbreaking research in lay terms for the general public.
View entire video below
Speakers Names, Title of their research and bios are shown below:
Duke's fitzpatrick institute for photonics FACULTY SPEAKERS (alphabetical order)
"Optical Coherence Tomography" by: Dr. Joseph A. Izatt, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Ophthalmology and Michael J. Fitzpatrick Distinguished Professor of Engineering
My research centers on the development and application of cutting-edge optical technologies for non-invasive, high-resolution imaging and sensing in living biological tissues. Our laboratory is recognized for foundational contributions to optical coherence-based approaches for in vivo sub-surface microscopic tissue imaging, particularly optical coherence tomography (OCT) which has become a standard of care in ophthalmology and other clinical specialties. The technologies we employ include adaptive-optic devices, femtosecond lasers, ultrabroadband fiber optic telecommunications equipment, robots and robotic manipulators, high performance computing, and 3D display technologies. Together with our collaborators, we have developed and deployed multiple hand-held and intrasurgical systems for real-time volumetric imaging of the human eye, visualized using virtual/augmented reality displays and coupled to image-guided robotic microsurgical procedures. Our research team includes a rich and diverse group of highly motivated and productive undergraduate, MS and PhD students, staff and associated faculty along with multiple collaborations with engineers, biologists, and physicians at Duke and elsewhere.
"Computational Optics: creating better images for the world" by: Dr. Roarke W. Horstmeyer, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Roarke Horstmeyer is an assistant professor within Duke's Biomedical Engineering Department. He develops microscopes, cameras and computer algorithms for a wide range of applications, from forming 3D reconstructions of organisms to detecting neural activity deep within tissue. His areas of interest include optics, signal processing, optimization and neuroscience. Most recently, Dr. Horstmeyer was a guest professor at the University of Erlangen in Germany and an Einstein postdoctoral fellow at Charitè Medical School in Berlin. Prior to his time in Germany, Dr. Horstmeyer earned a PhD from Caltech’s electrical engineering department in 2016, a master of science degree from the MIT Media Lab in 2011, and a bachelors degree in physics and Japanese from Duke University in 2006.
"Introduction to Nanotechnology" by: Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst, J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst is the J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, and the Executive Director of the Duke Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility, a Duke shared cleanroom and characterization facility. She received her BS in Physics from Creighton University in 1982, and her MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1984 and 1989, respectively. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, and has served as an elected member of the IEEE LEOS Board of Governors, and as the VP for Conferences and as the VP Technical Affairs. She is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, and has served as Chair of the OSA Engineering Council. Her awards include an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, an IEEE Third Millenium Medal, the IEEE/HP Harriet B. Rigas Medal, and the Alumni in Academia Award for the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering. She currently serves on the National Academies Board on Global Science and Technology. She has published over 200 refereed journal and conference publications, and has 6 patents.
"Structured light and darkness in nanophotonics" by: Natalia Litchinitser Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Litchinitser holds a Ph.D. Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her primary focus is on metamaterials that manipulate the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Litchinitser began her work with metamaterials as a research scientist at the University of Michigan, and joined the faculty at the University of Buffalo in 2008. Over the next decade, she became one of the leading experts in optical metamaterials. Currently, Litchinitser’s research focuses on topological photonics, which seek to direct light around tight corners using tiny waveguides that prevent photons from scattering. She is Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
"The Optical Coherence Tomography Revolution at Duke: using light in a new way to guide surgeons" by: Dr. Cynthia Ann Toth, Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology
Dr. Toth specializes in the evaluation and surgical treatment of vitreoretinal diseases in infants, children and adults, and in novel research resulting in the clinical application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging in surgery and at the bedside. Her clinical interests and skills include the surgical treatment of macular diseases (such as, macular hole, epiretinal membrane and vitreomacular traction), retinal detachment, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Dr. Toth is a world expert in retinal imaging with optical coherence tomography (OCT) and pioneered both the first use of a research hand-held spectral domain OCT system for infant examination and the first intraoperative OCT-guided ophthalmic surgical system. For infants and children, Dr. Toth's multidisciplinary team has demonstrated novel eye findings that are visible only with OCT imaging and that are often associated with brain disease or challenges of brain development. In surgery, Dr. Toth performed the world's first intraoperative OCT imaging and the first swept-source OCT imaging with heads-up display during retinal surgery. With colleagues in the Duke Eye Center and in Biomedical Engineering, she perfecting such techniques. She has been repeatedly honored among the Best Doctors in America. Dr. Toth is also professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering. Her primary research interests are in translational research and early-application clinical trials with a focus on novel retinal imaging with spectral domain and swept source optical coherence tomography (SD and SSOCT). Dr. Toth's Laboratory, the Duke Advanced Research in Spectral Domain/Swept Source OCT Imaging (DARSI) Laboratory centers on improving early diagnostic methods, imaging biomarkers and therapies for both age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and for retinal diseases in children. Sina Farsiu, PhD, has collaborated to provide advanced image processing for OCT with in the DARSI Laboratory. In collaboration with Joseph Izatt, PhD in Biomedical Engineering, the DARSI team is currently applying OCT to the diagnosis and care of retinal diseases and especially in microsurgery in adults and in children in several studies including NIH funded investigations. Dr. Toth was also co-founder and has been the Director of Grading for OCT for the Duke Reading Center and has designed and directed OCT analysis for numerous multicenter clinical trials including the Comparisons of AMD Treatment Trials (CATT). The Duke Reading Center provides support in training, data acquisition, and grading for multicenter clinical trials utilizing optical coherence tomography as an outcome measure. Dr. Toth chaired the multicenter Age Related Eye Disease Study 2 Ancillary SDOCT (A2ASDOCT) Study and has participated as site PI in the AREDS2. She also led studies of macular translocation surgery (MT360) for patients with severe AMD, along with co-investigator Dr. Sharon Freedman. Macular translocation surgery was a salvage treatment for AMD patients who lost vision due to neovascular AMD, prior to the current era of anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor treatments. The surgery resulted in an auto-transplant of the retina, isolating the retina from the underlying choroidal and retinal pigment epithelial pathology. Imaging and retinal function data from those studies have contributed to teasing out events in the macula related to vision loss.
"Nanotechnology and light for the medicine of the future" by Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh Vo-Dinh, R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics
Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh is R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Chemistry, and Director of The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics. Dr. Vo-Dinh’s research activities and interests involve biophotonics, nanophotonics, plasmonics, laser-excited luminescence spectroscopy, room temperature phosphorimetry, synchronous luminescence spectroscopy, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for multi-modality bioimaging, and theranostics (diagnostics and therapy) of diseases such as cancer and infectious diseases. We have pioneered the development of a new generation of gene biosensing probes using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection with “Molecular Sentinels” and Plasmonic Coupling Interference (PCI) molecular probes for multiplex and label-free detection of nucleic acid biomarkers (DNA, mRNA, microRNA) in early detection of a wide variety of diseases. In genomic and precision medicine, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnosis is of paramount importance with many advantages such as high specificity, high sensitivity, serotyping capability, and mutation detection. Using SERS-based plasmonic nanobiosensors and nanochips, we are developing novel nucleic acid detection methods that can be integrated into lab-on-a-chip systems for point-of-care diagnosis (e.g., breast, GI cancer) and global health applications (e.g., detection of malaria and dengue). In bioimaging, we are developing a novel multifunctional gold nanostar (GNS) probe for use in multi-modality bioimaging in pre-operative scans with PET, MRI and CT, intraoperative margin delineation with optical imaging, SERS and two-photon luminescence (TPL). The GNS can be used also for cancer treatment with plasmonics enhanced photothermal therapy (PTT), thus providing an excellent platform for seamless diagnostics and therapy (i.e., theranostics). Preclinical studies have shown its great potential for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics for future clinical translation. For fundamental studies, various nanobiosensors are being developed for monitoring intracellular parameters (e.g., pH) and biomolecular processes (e.g., apoptosis, caspases), opening the possibility for fundamental molecular biological research as well as biomedical applications (e.g., drug discovery) at the single cell level in a systems biology approach. For point of care diagnostics, nanoprobes and nanochips with highly multiplex SERS detection and imaging use artificial intelligence and machine learning for data analysis. Our research activities in immunotherapy involve unique plasmonics-active gold “nanostars.” These star-shaped nanobodies made of gold work like “lightning rods,” concentrating the electromagnetic energy at their tips and allowing them to capture photon energy more efficiently when irradiated by laser light. Teaming with medical collaborators, we have developed a novel cancer treatment modality, called synergistic immuno photothermal nanotherapy (SYMPHONY), which combines immune-checkpoint inhibition and gold nanostar–mediated photothermal immunotherapy that can unleash the immunotherapeutic efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors. This combination treatment can eradicate the primary tumors as well as distant “untreated” tumors, and induce immunologic memory like a “anti-cancer vaccine” effect in murine model.
"Controlled light improves cancer diagnosis and revives our cultural heritage" by: Dr. Warren S. Warren, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
Our work focuses on the design and application of what might best be called novel pulsed techniques, using controlled radiation fields to alter dynamics. The heart of the work is chemical physics, and most of what we do is ultrafast laser spectroscopy or nuclear magnetic resonance. It generally involves an intimate mixture of theory and experiment: recent publications are roughly an equal mix of pencil- and-paper theory, computer calculations with our workstations, and experiments. Collaborations also play an important role, particularly for medical applications.
"Using optics to detect disease at the cellular level" by: Dr. Adam Wax, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Physics
Dr. Wax's research interests include optical spectroscopy for early cancer detection, novel microscopy and interferometry techniques. The study of intact, living cells with optical spectroscopy offers the opportunity to observe cellular structure, organization and dynamics in a way that is not possible with traditional methods. We have developed a set of novel spectroscopic techniques for measuring spatial, temporal and refractive structure on sub-hertz and sub-wavelength scales based on using low-coherence interferometry (LCI) to detect scattered light. We have applied these techniques in different types of cell biology experiments. In one experiment, LCI measurements of the angular pattern of backscattered light are used to determine non-invasively the structure of sub-cellular organelles in cell monolayers, and the components of epithelial tissue from freshly excised rat esophagus. This work has potential as a diagnostic method for early cancer detection. In another experiment, LCI phase measurements are used to examine volume changes of epithelial cells in a monolayer in response to environmental osmolarity changes. Although cell volume changes have been measured previously, this work demonstrates for the first time the volume of just a few cells (2 or 3) tracked continuously and in situ.
"'Locking on' to single molecules and viruses in solution" by Dr. Kevin Wesher, Robert R. and Katherine B. Penn Associate Professor of Chemistry
Dr. Kevin Welsher, Assc. Prof., Duke University "Real-time 3D microscopy methods" - Single molecule spectroscopy elucidates the internal dynamics of immobilized molecules in vitro by collecting a continuous stream of emitted photons on a single photon counting detector, allowing continuous observation of the real-time molecular state, temporally limited only by the photon emission rate. In live cells, molecules rapidly diffuse out of the observation volume, precluding continuous observation. Moreover, in contrast to in vitro experiments, the molecule's cellular environment becomes critical to its dynamics. To enable continuous observation of molecular species in their live-cell context we developed 3D Multi-resolution Microscopy (3D-MM). 3D-MM utilizes real-time 3D single-particle tracking to "lock-on" to a single diffusing nanoparticle using optical feedback and a 3D piezo-electric stage, permitting continuous observation of its dynamics. The cellular context is collected via a two-photon laser scanning microscope, which constructs a 3D map of the nanoparticle's surroundings.
"From light to sound: faster, deeper and colorful photoacoustic imaging" by Dr. Junjie Yao, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurology
Our mission at PI-Lab is to develop state-of-the-art photoacoustic tomography (PAT) technologies and translate PAT advances into diagnostic and therapeutic applications, especially in functional brain imaging and early cancer theranostics. PAT is the most sensitive modality for imaging rich optical absorption contrast over a wide range of spatial scales at high speed, and is one of the fastest growing biomedical imaging technologies. Using numerous endogenous and exogenous contrasts, PAT can provide high-resolution images at scales covering organelles, cells, tissues, organs, small-animal organisms, up to humans, and can reveal tissue’s anatomical, functional, metabolic, and even histologic properties, with molecular and neuronal specificity. At PI-Lab, we develop PAT technologies with novel and advanced imaging performance, in terms of spatial resolutions, imaging speed, penetration depth, detection sensitivity, and functionality. We are interested with all aspects of PAT technology innovations, including efficient light illumination, high-sensitivity ultrasonic detection, super-resolution PAT, high-speed imaging acquisition, novel PA genetic contrast, and precise image reconstruction. On top of the technological advancements, we are devoted to serve the broad life science and medical communities with matching PAT systems for various research and clinical needs. With its unique contrast mechanism, high scalability, and inherent functional and molecular imaging capabilities, PAT is well suited for a variety of pre-clinical applications, especially for studying tumor angiogenesis, cancer hypoxia, and brain disorders; it is also a promising tool for clinical applications in procedures such as cancer screening, melanoma staging, and endoscopic examination.
