Researchers: Adrian Bradu (Research Assistant) & Lisha Ma (Dept. of Biosciences)
Supervisors: A. Podoleanu & Jim Bloor (Dept. of Biosciences)
Project Funding: BBSRC; project started in November 2006; will last till November 2009

Project Outline

Developmental biology is moving away from standard antibody staining of fixed embryos toward live imaging which can provide novel insights into various known developmental events. However, live imaging is restricted at the embryo surface. In transparent and semi-transparent organisms amenable to transgenic manipulation the expression of some fluorescent proteins can be detected by laser scanning confocal microscopy. Although by expressing fluorescent proteins one can successfully image transparent areas, effective imaging at depth in embryos and tissue is still restricted. To address this limitation, another imaging technique, such as Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) needs to be used.

To investigate the potential of OCT based measurement on well characterised and novel animal models for embryology and cell imaging we initiated a collaborative project between the Cell Biology & Developmental Group involving Dr J. Bloor and Dr Lisha Ma and ourselves.

The aims of the joint research activity are:
- to develop a OCT platform for high resolution full depth 4D imaging of cells and embryos
- to combine the imaging depth capability of OCT with the high lateral resolution of fluorescent imaging by developing a dual OCT-confocal microscope
- the development of proteinaceous contrast agents for OCT to be used for protein tagging and cell imaging at depth in embryos.

Conference papers

A. Bradu, L. Ma, A. Podoleanu and J. Bloor, "Combining confocal/ optical coherence tomography system for embryonic developmental imaging", presented at BIOS 2008, San Jose, California, 19-24 January 2008; published in Proc. SPIE 6847 (2008)
A. Bradu, L. Ma, A. Podoleanu and J. Bloor, "Combining confocal microscopy and optical coherence tomography system for imaging in developmental biology", presented at Photonics Europe , Strasbourg, France, 7-10 April 2008; to be published in Proc. SPIE 6991 (2008)