Advances in optical tomography and molecular imaging: translation of optical imaging technology from bench to bedside

ChEMS Seminar

Dr. Zhongping Chen

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Beckmann Laser Institute

The Edwards Life Sciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology

University of California, Irvine

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is one of the fastest growing areas of biomedical optics with many potential clinical applications.  The recent development of Fourier domain OCT has significantly increased the imaging speed and sensitivity, and has enabled real-time 3-D imaging.  The innovations in light source, detector, miniature probe, image processing, coupling with the development of various contrast agents such as nanoparticle, have greatly extended the clinical applications of OCT technology.  Many of the functional extensions of OCT technology that were developed in the last decade, such as Doppler OCT, polarization sensitivity OCT, and phase resolved OCT, started to generate clinically important [HC1] information in clinical studies. I will report several on-going research projects in my laboratory that focus on translating OCT technology to solve specific clinical problems.  In addition, advances in multimodality endoscopic/intravascular imaging that combines morphological contrast of OCT with molecular contrast of endoscopic multiphoton imaging, coherence Raman scattering, and photoacoustic tomography, will also be described.  The challenges and opportunities in translational research will be discussed.

Bio:

Dr. Zhongping Chen is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of OCT Laboratory at University of California, Irvine.  He is a Co-Founder of OCT Medical Imaging Inc. Dr. Chen received his B.S. degree in Applied Physics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1982, his M. S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1987, and his Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 1993.

Dr. Chen’s research interests encompass the areas of biomedical photonics, microfabrication, biomaterials and biosensors. His research group has pioneered the development of functional optical coherence tomography, which simultaneously provides high resolution 3-D images of tissue structure, blood flow, and birefringence.  He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers and review articles and holds a number of patents in the fields of biomaterials, biosensors, and biomedical imaging.

Dr. Chen is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a Fellow of SPIE, and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.