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Mihaela Balu, Ph.D.

July 8, 2019 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Associate Researcher at the Beckman Laser Institute, UC Irvine

Clinical skin imaging with multiphoton microscopy– current strategies and future directions

Abstract
The ability of multiphoton microscopy (MPM) to generate high-resolution 3D maps of specific tissue molecular compounds led to its widespread use in biomedical applications. MPM has been successfully employed in research labs for basic biology studies and imaging of small animal models but due to the complexity and cost of the microscope systems, only recently it started to be explored as a technique for non-invasive in-vivo human skin imaging. In the US, the first clinical skin imaging research studies using MPM have been initiated at BLI by our group in collaboration with the Dermatology Department at UCI using the first commercial clinical MPM system. Since 2012, ~300 patients have been enrolled in our research studies. In this talk, I will present results from several MPM clinical studies, with an emphasis on our most advanced research on quantitative imaging for non-invasive early diagnosis of melanoma. Other applications include employing in vivo MPM for guiding treatment of pigmentary skin disorders and monitoring the re-pigmentation process of skin disorders such as vitiligo. These applications have been driven by novel MPM developments. In the same time, they are driving further advances of the technology to address current barriers, such as limited scanning area and scanning speed. I will present an overview of the current stage of development of our proposed clinical MPM platform for skin imaging that addresses these limitations, while offering enhanced portability and reduced complexity. I will also discuss the challenges involved in the translational process of this technology and potential approaches to overcome them, along with strategies for integrating advanced imaging with artificial intelligence-based diagnostic algorithms and with single cell transcriptomics to capture the cellular, molecular and metabolic signatures in tissues of interest.

Biography
Mihaela Balu, Ph.D., is Associate Researcher at the Beckman Laser Institute, UC Irvine. She has a Master in Physics and a PhD in Optics from the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL), University of Central Florida. Her research is focused on integrating and advancing modern biophotonics technologies such as nonlinear optical microscopy to clinical setting. Her main goal is to use this technique as a non-invasive imaging tool for visualizing, quantifying and understanding the morphological and underlying molecular processes in skin, with a particular interest in melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer.

For more information or to schedule a meeting with the speaker, please contact Hanna Kim.

Details

Date:
July 8, 2019
Time:
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Venue

3201 Natural Sciences II

Organizer

Lunch provided

Details

Date:
July 8, 2019
Time:
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Venue

3201 Natural Sciences II

Organizer

Lunch provided