Intrinsic-contrast optical microscopy of oxygen metabolism

The metabolic rate of oxygen (MRO2) is a fundamental parameter that is needed to better-understand the pathophysiology of many life-threatening diseases including various cancers and diabetic complications. We developed integrated optical coherence tomography and laser-scanning optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy to measure MRO2 in vivo without extrinsic labeling. To achieve this goal, Doppler optical coherence tomography measures the absolute blood velocity and multi-wavelength photoacoustic microscopy measures the hemoglobin oxygen saturation. After quantifying the vessels diameters and the total hemoglobin concentration, MRO2 can be calculated. We are now further combining this multimodal technology with fluorescence microscopy and adaptive optics for comprehensive investigation of the two leading vision-loss diseases: diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.

Dr. Hao F. Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, Evanston IL. He received his Bachelor and Master degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1997 and 2000, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University in 2006. From 2006 to 2007, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. He is interested in novel optical imaging technologies and vision sciences. For more information, please visit http://foil.northwestern.edu.