SBIR-STTR Award

A novel Confocal Modulation System that conveniently attaches to almost any conventional microscope and converts it into a confocal microscope having innovations and capabilities not available together in current confocal microscopes will be developed. The specific aims are to model, build, and test the crucial optical sub-components of the invention for use in modeling and testing overall system feasibility. Modeling methodologies will include optical ray-tracing, analysis of point-spread functions, and aberration analysis. The models will require photometric measurements of aberrations and stray-light for the constructed sub-components. The system will be commercially sold to biomedical research laboratories and universities. It potentially enables new studies of synaptic activity, cell proliferation and metastasis, kidney trouble function, and intracellular kinetics, to name just a few. It offers the following novel advantages:(1) User-selectable, high-speed imaging of up to 1,000 frames/second;(2) Choice of reflection, fluorescence, and transmission confocal imaging;(3) User can selectively illuminate an image from partial view fields;(4) Image acquisition and processing can be completely gated and controlled by computer. The system can use white light or laser illumination, has no moving parts, and can automatically compensate for field distortion.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:Commercial applications of the Confocal Modulation System primarily include sales to biomedical research labs and clinical diagnostics labs. There are also significant commercial applications to silicon microchip inspection and quality control due to the high spatial and temporal resolution of the system.National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)

A novel Confocal Modulation System is being developed to conveniently attach to and convert almost any conventional microscope into a confocal microscope having innovations and unique combined capabilities including; I) Choice of reflection, fluorescence, and transmission confocal imaging, 2) User-selectable illumination and imaging from partial view fields, 3) Variable speed imaging potentially beyond 1000 frames/sec, 4) External gating and control of illumination and image acquisition, 5) Choice of white light or laser illumination, 6) Automatic correction of field distortion, 7) No moving parts to degeneratively mis-align.The specific aims of Phase II are to build and test a fully functional prototype module based on the successful analytic optical modeling and sub-component feasibility studies completed under Phase I. Aberration, contrast, and resolution will be analyzed photometrically on a variety of optical evaluation targets and on real biological specimens in order to optimize the system for general and specialized applications. A PC-compatible interface and image-processing software will be developed to take full advantage of the optical design, enable ratio imaging, and integrate with other commercial imaging tools. The system should enable new studies of intracellular ion concentrations, synaptic activity, cell proliferation and metastasis, kidney tubule function, and intracellular kinetics.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applieations of the research:The Confocal Modulation System's advantages and cost-effectiveness render it ideal for sale to biomedical research laboratories and universities. It is also well-suited to the burgeoning clinical market for confocal microscopes and for testing labs. The system can also potentially image fast synaptic changes, kidney tubule voltage gradients and intracellular calcium simultaneously, and intracellular kinetics for basic research or drug testing. Peripherally, it could also perform high-speed silicon wafer inspection.National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)