Condensed Matter & Materials Science Seminar

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

Michael Fink

Omega Optical, Brattleboro, VT

"Color Resolution of Cellular Autofluorescence using Optical Thin Films"

When your tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, right? Well, our tool is thin film deposition and we’re trying to solve every problem we can think of with it. One such problem: cancer detection and treatment. The autofluorescence spectrum of a cell will reliably change as the cell’s health degrades from healthy to pre-cancerous to cancerous. We present here our thin film-based solution to making an inexpensive, color-resolved endoscope to detect the autofluorescence in vivo. Omega Optical and our partner, Mount Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles are about to begin animal trials on cancer detection using our first fully functional prototype.