CAREER: A new Telemedicine Platform using Incoherent Lensfree Cell Holography and Microscopy On a Chip

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

0954482 Ozcan The recent revolutionary progress in digital technologies together with novel image reconstruction algorithms and theories can fundamentally transform the way that we conduct cell microscopy, cytometry and medical diagnostics. With this vision, this proposal makes a systematic effort to highlight this timely opportunity to revolutionize cell microscopy by making it free of any lenses, lasers or other bulky optical components with a much simpler, compact and cost-effective imaging architecture especially suitable for telemedicine needs and requirements. Through incoherent lensfree cell holography & on-chip microscopy platform of this proposal (i.e., LUCAS), the PI proposes to compensate in the digital domain for the lack of complexity of optical components by recording individual phase & amplitude holograms of various cell types. These cell holograms also yield accurate reconstruction of microscopic images featuring sub-cellular resolution over a very large field of view (FOV) even at cell densities reaching up to ~0.4 Million cells/ìL. Merging cost-effective and compact LUCAS imagers with the state-of-the-art cell-phone technology will create numerous opportunities for telemedicine to improve health care especially in the developing world where medical facilities and infrastructure are extremely limited.