INTELLISENSE SYSTEMS INC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 27a

Description

The science of mesoscale to molecules bioimaging is being developed by creating novel multifunctional technologies to image, measure, and model key metabolic processes within and among microbial cells and multicellular plant tissues. Specifically, for efficient plant biomass- based biofuel production new bioimaging devices are sought for nondestructive, functional metabolic imaging of plant and microbial systems, to enable an understanding of the spatial/temporal relationships, physical connections, and chemical exchanges that facilitate the flow of information and material across membranes and between intracellular partitions. To address this bioimaging need, a new wide field-of-view dynamic microlens array talbot fluorescence microscope for bioimaging is proposed. The proposed device is based on a Talbot grid-based microscope design that utilizes an electrically tunable dynamic liquid-crystal microlens array and low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf components. Specifically, the innovation in the use of a dynamic microlens array will enable the proposed microscope to improve the resolution by tenfold (10x) over current systems, with higher numerical aperture and multiwavelength (multicolor fluorophores) imaging via liquid crystal phase correction and dynamic focus tuning. It is a modular, plug-and-play, and low material cost (<$20k) stand-alone system without modification needed to current equipment. As a result, this device offers higher resolution, large spatial coverage, short acquisition time, small size package, with low material cost. Thus, the proposed Talbot microscope will enable high-resolution, wide (scalable) field-of-view time-lapse imaging, allowing viewing and tracking of a large number of cells over an extended period of time. In Phase I, the feasibility of the proposed optical microscope will be demonstrated by developing a design that could acquire high-resolution large field-of-view images as specified in the project goal. In Phase II, the proposer plans to develop a prototype of an optical microscope that will meet the customer requirements and demonstrate its capability for multi-functional spatial/temporal imaging and measurements. The proposer will establish future collaboration with biological and environment research laboratories in the design, testing, and evaluation of the instrument. The proposed optical microscope system will provide a new reliable method to quantitatively image the submicron dynamic cellular structures within a large field area of the device, with a unique capability to characterize time-lapsed cellular dynamics by multicolor fluorescence imaging, needed for developing a scientific basis for plant biomass-based biofuel production. The system can also be applied in the fabrication of electronic and display devices; other applications include nanotechnology research and biomedical imaging.