About This Webinar
In the field of optical imaging, the ability to image tumors at depth with high selectivity and specificity remains challenging. Although surface enhanced resonant Raman scattering (SERRS) nanoparticles (NPs) can be employed as image contrast agents to specifically image cells in vivo, this technique typically requires time-intensive point-by-point acquisition of Raman spectra. In addition, traditional approaches involving Raman spectroscopy are limited due to their inability to probe through tissue depths of more than a few millimeters. Here, researchers combine the use of spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) with SERRS in a technique known as surface enhanced spatially offset resonance Raman spectroscopy (SESORRS) to image deep-seated tumors in vivo. Using a novel sampling frequency methodology, researchers report an experimental SESORRS approach for detecting both the bulk tumor, and subsequent high-speed delineation of tumor margins, with fewer measurements than typically applied.
Fay Nicolson discusses the optimization of SORS instrumentation and imaging approaches as well as the subsequent application of SESORRS to pre-clinical cancer imaging and the delineation of tumor margins in Apcfl/+, Apcfl/+;KrasG12D/+, and finally GL261 mouse models of colorectal cancer and glioblastoma. Moreover, using a SESORRS approach, she demonstrates that it is possible to detect secondary, deeper-seated lesions through the intact skull. This approach enables improvements in the non-invasive detection of these cancers due to improvements in SNR, spectral resolution, and depth acquisition, and can complement clinically approved image-guided surgical techniques.
Who should attend:
Researchers, students, and laboratory technicians who are interested in innovative cancer research and imaging applications. Anyone who works with or is interested in surface enhanced spatially offset Raman spectroscopy. Those who work in imaging within medical research, biotechnology, microscopy, test & measurement, machine learning, tomography, and cancer research.
About the presenter:
Fay Nicolson, Ph.D., obtained her doctorate from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland in 2018. She then joined the department of radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, U.S., as a postdoctoral research scholar and relocated to Boston where she is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in cancer biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Harvard Medical School. In January 2024, she will open her own independent lab as a tenure-track assistant professor in the department of imaging at DFCI and the department of radiology at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests lie in the development and translation of molecular imaging technologies and radiotheranostic agents for the combined detection, evaluation, and treatment of cancer. Her work in this area has been recognized through awards and fellowships including the Metrohm USA Young Chemist 2020 (Runner-up), DFCI Trustee Science Committee Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health. Nicolson is an active member of the World Molecular Imaging Society’s “Women in Molecular Imaging Network” and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy’s “Early Career Interest Group” where she serves as founding chair.