The Johns Hopkins University

Janaka Senarathna

Nitish V Thakor

Abhishek Rege

Arvind Pathak

Hang Yu

Abhiskek Rege

An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a miniature microscope capable of performing in vivo, real-time imaging of multiple organ sites in awake and behaving animals (e.g. rodents). A microscope according to the present invention includes multiple optical contrast mechanisms (i.e. contrast arising from neural, hemodynamic and other physiological components). Exemplary contrast mechanisms include, but are not limited to fluorescence, hemoglobin level, deoxyhemoglobin level, and blood flow. The microscope is fully adaptable to in vitro and ex vivo imaging, can be customized to concurrently image at variable magnifications, conduct optogenetic/electrical/chemical stimulations, drug delivery, microdialysis, accompanied by electrical signal recording, wireless image transmission and charging.

Miniature microscope for multi-contrast optical imaging in animals

An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a system and method for imaging living tissue and processing laser speckle data anisotropically to calculate laser speckle contrast preferentially along the direction of blood flow. In the present invention, raw laser speckle images are obtained and processed resulting in the anisotropic laser speckle images. The system and method involve the determination of the direction of blood flow for every pixel within the region of interest (primary pixel) and subsequent extraction of a set of secondary pixels in the spatio-temporal neighborhood of the primary pixel that is anisotropic in the direction of blood flow. Speckle contrast is then calculated for every primary pixel as the ratio of standard deviation and mean of all secondary pixels in this anisotropic neighborhood and collectively plotted using a suitable color mapping scheme to obtain an anisotropic laser speckle contrast image of the region of interest.

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Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Janaka Senarathna