Proposal

Narrative

The objective of this study is to educate undergraduate students with 3D optical coherence tomography (OCT) for biomedical applications. OCT is a non-invasive, label-free, non-contact technique for 3D cross-sectional tissue imaging. It typically uses light in the near-infrared spectral range which has a penetration depth of several hundred microns in tissue, while conventional 3D imaging techniques, such as confocal fluorescent microscopy, may not penetrate the full thickness of tissues. Additionally, confocal microscopy is destructive since it requires staining. To overcome the challenge of label-free, nondestructive, contactless observations of the cell distribution in thick tissue or non-transparent biomaterials, OCT can achieve contrast in a label-free manner from differences in the refractive index of organelles within cells. The acquisition of such an advanced bioimaging microscope will necessarily promote the advancement of education in the major fields of biomedical science, biological science, biochemistry, and biomedical engineering. However, there is no such an OCT available at FAU Boca campus. The unavailability of this instrument hinders the educational opportunity to undergraduate students, also limits the DIS-based or OURI research development of undergraduate students. Therefore, this Techfee proposal proposes to acquire an OCT to educate students with 3D bioimaging technique. The OCT microscope proposed here is manufactured by a leading manufacturer of OCT (THORLabs Inc., attachment). This proposed OCT microscope has many functions to meet a variety of applications and education needs for FAU students. Once it is installed at FAU, at least 200 students from several departments will receive benefit from the instrument. This instrument will be freely accessible to all the students. After the completion of this project during the following three years, at least 300 students will continue to obtain the educational benefit of OCT imaging.

Facilities

There is no facilities renovations or upgrades required.

Hardware Requirements

There is no any hardware requirements.

Software Requirements

There is no any software requirements. All the required softwares are associated with the system from the manufacture.

Personnel Costs

There is no any personnel costs.

Other Costs

There is no any other costs associated with this project.

Timeline

2025.3-2025.7: Order the quoted OCT microscope. 2025.7-2025.8: Install the instrument and get training for running the microscope 2025.9-2025.10: Run the microscope. If there is any potential issue, work with the company to solve problems. 2025.11-2025.12: Training students. 2026.1- 2026.12: Integrate the OCT imaging technique to undergraduate courses. Educate students to use the microscope. 2027.1- 2027.12: Educate students to use the microscope, including DIR or OURI research. 2028.1- : Continue to educate FAU undergraduate students to use OCT imaging technique in courses or research.

Sustainability

The Plan for sustainability include: 1. Keep maintaining the instrument. 2. Appoint a graduate student from the PI's lab to train undergraduate students from courses. 3. Gather data from the instrument from research projects that OURI or DIR undergraduate researchers do for publications. Publications can help the award of research proposals, which could provide funds to further support the maintenance of the instrument. 4. Continue to integrate the OCT technique to related courses for sustainability.

Resource Matching

The PI's lab can provide research environment to train students to use the microscope and maintain the sustainability.

Implementing Organization

The Department of Biomedical Engineering at College of Engineering and Computer Science will implement the project.