Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas

Tufts College

Vivonics, Inc.

Kyle Quinn

Irene Georgakoudi

Michele Pierro

Dimitra Pouli

Zhiyi Liu

Alan Woessner

Suresh Kumar Thallapuranam

Srinivas Jayanthi

Kartik Balachandran

Jingyi Chen

Ngoc Lam

Isabelle Niyonshuti

Shilpi Agarwal

Tengjiao Wang

Jake Jones

Ravi Kumar Gundampati

Olivia Kolenc

Methods and corresponding apparatus and systems for assessing cellular metabolic activity are disclosed. In one aspect, a cell can be illuminated with optical radiation in order to cause multi-photon excitation of at least one endogenous metabolic cofactor in that cell and cause the excited metabolic cofactor to emit fluorescent radiation. A detector can be used to detect the fluorescent radiation emitted by the excited endogenous metabolic cofactor. A computer processor can analyze the fluorescent radiation to derive the following parameters: (1) using a computer processor to analyze the intensity of the fluorescent radiation, (2) a fluorescence lifetime of at least one of the excited metabolic cofactor, (3) a parameter indicative of mitochondrial clustering in the cell. These parameters can be used to assess at least one metabolic process of the cell.

System and method for assessing cellular metabolic activity

A contactless system for assessing tissue viability and other hemodynamic parameters includes one or more light sources configured to emit lights at a predetermined wavelength sensitive to hemoglobin concentration associated with spontaneous hemodynamic oscillations at tissue in a predetermined area of a human subject. One or more polarizers are each coupled to one or more of the one or more light sources and are configured to polarize the light to a polarized state such that the polarized light in the polarized state diffuses into the tissue in the predetermined area at a predetermined depth and the polarized light is maintained in the polarized state at the predetermined depth. One or more detectors each including a detector polarizer coupled thereto are configured to discriminate the light maintained in the polarized state and at the predetermined depth and are configured to generate a plurality of frames of the tissue in the predetermined area at the predetermined depth. A controller is coupled to the one or more light sources and the one or more detectors. The controller is configured to: acquire the plurality of frames, select a region of interest having the same coordinates for each of the plurality of frames, average the number of pixels within each region of interest to create a raw reference signal, detrend the raw reference signal to create a detrended raw reference signal, perform frequency domain analysis of the detrended raw reference signal, identify a frequency band of interest associated with the spontaneous hemodynamic oscillations, and perform an inverse fast Fourier transform within the frequency band of interest to generate a reference signal indicative of blood volume oscillations at a selected spontaneous hemodynamic oscillation. For each sample of the reference signal at a predetermined point in time, the controller multiplies the sample by each pixel of a frame at the same predetermined point in time to generate a three-dimensional coordinate matrix including a plurality of correlation matrix frames at each predetermined point in time. The controller adds the plurality of correlation matrix frames at each predetermined point in time to generate a two-dimensional hemodynamic map indicative of the strength of the spontaneous hemodynamic oscillation to assess the viability of the tissue in the predetermined area.

Contactless system and method for assessing tissue viability and other hemodynamic parameters

Engineered FGF1 and FGF2 polypeptides, polynucleotides encoding these polypeptides and DNA constructs, vectors and compositions including these engineered polypeptides are provided herein. The engineered FGF1 and FGF2 polypeptides are more stable than their wild-type counterparts and may be more effective at treating a variety of conditions that FGF1 and FGF2 are useful for treating such as wound healing.

Engineered FGF1 and FGF2 compositions and methods of use thereof

Growing community of inventors

Fayetteville, AR, United States of America

Kyle Quinn