I-Corps: InCh holographic microscope for cell diagnostics

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This ICorps project seeks to evaluate the business opportunity for a new optical cellular imaging modality for use at the clinical point of care. The microscope system will employ a unique sample holder, called the interferometric-chamber (InCh) which enables holographic imaging of cell morphology with a simple, inexpensive yet robust optical system. Significantly, this approach does not require any sample preparation, such as addition of fluorescent labels, and obtains wide field images of cell samples in a single acquisition, i.e., no sample or optical scan is needed. Holographic cell images can be easily processed to calculate numerical morphological parameters of individual cells and thus provide important information for medical diagnosis and health status. The proposed team will critically evaluate the commercial need, target markets and develop a licensing strategy as well as create a commercial prototype of the InCh microscope for demonstration to potential partners and investors. The long-range goal of this research is to create a new biomedical diagnostic product for the purpose of generating holographic cell images, particularly red blood cells, at the point of care using a simple, robust imaging device. Initial testing will be conducted on red blood cells to calculate parameters usually obtained by manual cell counting of blood smear samples. Further applications include identifying abnormalities of the red and white blood cells due to malaria, chagas and sickle cell anemia as well as real time imaging of living cells for laboratory applications such as cancer biology and stem cell research. This research has significant transformative potential in that it can dramatically increase the availability of diagnostic information at the point of care. If successful, this technology can impact healthcare domestically as well as in the developing world. Further, this technology can be used as a tool to enable future discoveries by providing a means to obtain and rapidly analyze information from blood samples for biomedical studies.