Seminar

 

▶Subject : In Vivo Fluorescence Cellular Imaging by Laser Scanning Endomicroscopy

▶Speaker : Prof. Pilhan Kim(KAIST)

▶Date : 4:00PM/Jul.16(Mon)/2012

▶Place : Auditorium(1F), Postech Biotech Center

 

*Abstract
Small animal, particularly mouse, has been an important test bed for basic and translational biomedical study preceding clinical application. Recent advances in genomic technology have allowed a creation of animal model for human disease with genetically encoded biomarkers, notably such as green fluorescent protein (GFP). Combined with mature fluorescence-based probes, it has opened up new avenue to investigate complex pathophysiology of human disease in animal model with much greater details at cellular and molecular level. Accordingly, novel fluorescence imaging methods that can visualize anatomical structure with functional and molecular information provided by fluorescent probes in animal model in vivo have drawn great attentions.
While all of major clinical imaging modality such as ultrasound, CT, MRI and PET has been modified and adapted, optical imaging, especially laser scanning confocal and multiphoton fluorescence microscopy, are the only one readily provides cellular resolution of sub-micrometer in live animal. Over the recent years, these technologies enabled dynamic 3D visualization of various biological processes unfold in real-time in the living subject, which provides unprecedented insights those were impossible to obtain by traditional static 2D snapshots (e.g. histopathology and cytometry). It has been utilized to monitor gene expression, protein activity, drug delivery, cell trafficking, cell interaction, physiological response under external stimuli in live animal in vivo, which provides new insights unobtainable by conventional ex vivo and in-vitro study. However, for most viscera and thoracic organs deeply placed inside animal, application of these techniques has been challenging due to the limited imaging depth and lack of non-invasive technique for access.
In this presentation, the recent development of endoscopic method to conduct these in-vivo microscopy techniques in minimally invasive way to visualize deep internal organ in small animal will be introduced. Fabrication of 1mm diameter miniature gradient index lens-based endomicroscope and its integration to home-built video-rate confocal / multi-photon microscopy system will be presented. Its application to various basic and translational biomedical studies through wide-area cellular imaging of internal organ will be demonstrated1,2. Specifically, the longitudinal visualization of immune cell trafficking from the graft to host and vice versa after organ transplantation in mouse model will be presented. And recent efforts on the visualization of early tumorigenesis of orthotopic spontaneous colorectal cancer mouse model will be presented. Not only for basic biomedical research, this live animal imaging system can serve as a platform for translational research to monitor efficacy of various preclinical therapy, which can greatly expedite clinical translation. With further development of technology and engineering efforts, it may evolve to a novel diagnostic tool in certain areas of everyday human clinic with novel nano-engineered materials.
1P. Kim, et. al., Nature Methods, 7:303-305 (2010), 2J. Kim, et. al., Nature Protocols, 7:1456-1469 (2012)

 

☎ Inquiry : Prof. Gho Yong Song(279-2345)

*This Seminar will be given in Korean.