SYNOPSIS
Microscopy is usually done in a laboratory on carefully prepared very thin samples and achieves resolutions better than micrometers. Medical imaging, by contrast, is usually performed on sizeable portions of the living human body, and resolutions are rarely better than 1 millimeter.
Over the last decade, there has been great progress in applying optical microscopy techniques to the human body in a medical setting. This push has been led by optical coherence tomography, which is now in mainstream use in ophthalmology and is soon to gain acceptance in cardiology.
Optical coherence tomography is an optical analog of ultrasound – but it penetrates much less and resolves much more. In this talk, I will describe how it works, where it came from, what it can do, what limits it and where it might go. This talk takes wide aim: at those who wish to gain a non-technical introduction to the topic; at new researchers in the field; and there may even be a snippet or two for the OCT maestros!
BIO
Winthrop Professor Sampson is Director of the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation & Analysis, a core facility of the University of Western Australia, and heads the Optical+Biomedical Engineering Laboratory (OBEL) in the School of Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering. He directs the Western Australian nodes of the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility and Australia’s National Imaging Facility, and the Western Australian State Government’s Centre for eMedicine. He leads the University’s Bioimaging Initiative aimed at increasing the uptake and quality of microscopic imaging and related technologies in medicine and the life sciences.
W/Prof. Sampson’s research interests are in biomedical optical engineering, with an emphasis on photonics, imaging and microscopy. He and his team are involved in activities ranging from the invention and investigation of new optical techniques, to the engineering of these techniques into practical instruments, and their application in clinical medicine and biology. A major emphasis of his research is the medical imaging modality optical coherence tomography, and he is widely known for pioneering anatomical optical coherence tomography, a version that enables dynamic 3D imaging of hollow organ anatomy, and its application in human airways. His team is extensively engaged in advancing microscope-in-a-needle technology and its application in intraoperative cancer imaging.
