Date/Time
Date(s) - 11/20/2012
9:00 am

Abstract:This dissertation presents multi-scale PAT and its applications to cancer research. The first part of my dissertation discusses the development of optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (ORPAM) owning high-resolution, high-sensitivity in vivo imaging. In this section, we describes the regular ORPAM system including the principle, system design, experimental procedures and a simple application of visualizing microvascular structure in mice ear. A miniature hybrid probe combing ORPAM with optical coherence tomography (OCT) is described and demonstrated with in vivo animal experiments which shows the potential to for endoscopic cancer research. The second part of the dissertation focuses on developing acoustic-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (ARPAM) breaking the limitation of imaging depth for ORPAM.We also introduce Its applications on anti-angiogenesis drug study for breast cancer and molecular imaging with targeted nanoparticles for breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The third part of my dissertation focuses on intraoperative photoacoustic tomography (iPAT) probe for image-guided surgery of breast cancer. The probe is evaluated with phantom experiments and in vivo experiments on an animal mode. The fourth part of my dissertation focuses on integrating circular array-based photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) system with diffuse optical tomography system. Several sets of phantom experiments using tumor mimicking targets and ex vivo tumor experiments are used to evaluate the performance of this hybrid system.In the last part, I make a conclusion and show the future direction for each photoacoustic imaging modality.