Over half million Americans are expected to die of cancer this year. This high mortality is mainly due to the lack of detecting cancers at their early stages. For example, early-stage gastric cancer (GC) has a 5-year survival of ~90% whereas the 5-year survival rate of late-stage GC is less than 20%.
In collaboration with the International Collaborator (Dr. M. Gu) of this proposal, Dr. Xie demonstrated, for the first time, the principle of a compact NLO microscope based on a doublecladding PCF and a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirror [9]. With this novel device, they have demonstrated the world's first 3D 2PF and SHG images of gastric tissue with a penetration depth of ~100 im. In this project, they will use double-clad photonic crystal fibers (PCF) to maximize the coupling efficiency and MEMS technology to miniaturize the imaging probe. The MEMS technology includes lateral-scanning micromirrors and axial-scanning microlenses. Three tasks will be pursued: (1) development of fast-scanning, large-range micromirrors and microlenses; (2) instrumentation development including optomechanical design, electronics design, and miniature probe design and assembling; and (3) imaging experiments and image reconstruction and processing.
This SGER project if successful will form a revolutionary foundation for non-invasive early cancer detection at a cellular level.
