Point-of-care (PoC) diagnostic devices enable access to healthcare in under-served communities that typically show higher rates of incidence for chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). CVD continues to be a leading cause of death globally according to the World Health Organization. One of the major problems associated with the diagnosis of myocardial infarction is the lack of sensitivity provided by the current standard of care, electrocardiograms. In order to improve patient … [Read more...] about Handheld Raman and Fluorescence Spectrometer
Research
Quantitative Cytomorphology
Standard techniques for culture evaluation are subjective, destructive, or time consuming. The process of morphological inspection of cells has been a robust method to assess culture health, but it suffers from inter-observer variation and does not easily translate to three-dimensional culture. Funded by Texas A&M President’s Excellence Fund X-Grant in collaboration with Dr. Carl Gregory and Dr. Maryellen Giger, we are developing volumetric optical microscopy and machine intelligence to … [Read more...] about Quantitative Cytomorphology
Optical Imaging of Tuberculosis
Development of effective vaccines and therapies for tuberculosis are hindered by the lengthy 1-2 months time to culture the causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Rapid detection of mycobacteria could provide real-time feedback on drug development and evaluation. In collaboration with Dr. Jeffrey Cirillo and with support from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, we have integrated intravital fiber-optic microendoscopy with … [Read more...] about Optical Imaging of Tuberculosis
Macroscopic FLIM and Reflectance Confocal Microscopy
Funded by an R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute, we developed combined macroscopic fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and high resolution confocal microscopy for early detection of epithelial precancer, specifically in the oral cavity in vivo. This multi-modality, multi-scale system provides both macroscopic time-resolved autofluorescence surveillance at multiple emission wavelengths simultaneously and high resolution three dimensional imaging of cellular morphology to detect and … [Read more...] about Macroscopic FLIM and Reflectance Confocal Microscopy