The first issue of SPIE Biophotonics Discovery is out!
Here it is!
Darren will be the inaugural editor-in-chief for the SPIE journal Biophotonics Discovery
Darren has been named the new editor-in-chief of SPIE Biophotonics Discovery. The journal will provide an outlet for basic science and applications of emerging and novel biophotonic techniques.
Our SWIR SFDI paper made the cover of JBO!
Anahita Pilvar, Jorge Plutzky, Mark C. Pierce, Darren Roblyer, “Shortwave infrared spatial frequency domain imaging for non-invasive measurement of tissue and blood optical properties”, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 27(6), 066003 (2022), link
Our wearable breast cancer probe published in JBO
Ph.D. student Sam Spink was the first author in our new paper which describes the design and performance of a new highly flexible wearable probe that uses near infrared light to probe breast tissue. Sam and the research team explored how paced (slow) breathing can be used to quantify the hemodynamic state of breast tissue, with the near future application of monitor breast tumors during chemotherapy. Thanks to the large and diverse team of engineers, physicists, and physicians for this one.
This paper is included in JBO's special series on WEARABLE, IMPLANTABLE, MOBILE, AND REMOTE BIOMEDICAL OPTICS AND PHOTONICS
Raeef Istfan Successfully Defends his Ph.D.
Long time BOTLab member (Raeef was the first employee of the BOTlab in 2012 before becoming a Ph.D. student) successfully defended his Ph.D. His thesis is entitled: "FREQUENCY-DOMAIN DIFFUSE OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY FOR CARDIOVASCULAR AND RESPIRATORY APPLICATIONS"
Congratulations Raeef!!
Our study on optical scattering for chemo monitoring is published in Neoplasia
In this work we used SFDI to monitor optical scattering in prostate and breast animal tumor models. We found that the reduced scattering coefficient was strongly correlated with apoptosis, and the scattering power was strongly correlated with proliferation. This helped us track treatment response to cyclophosphamide and the antiangiogenic DC101. This work helps establish optical scattering as an important label-free optical marker of anti-cancer treatment response that can be used with other more common markers, such as oxygen saturation, hemoglobin levels, water, and lipids. It also helps make the case for frequency-domain and/or time-domain diffuse optical techniques such as SFDI, DOS, FD-NIRS, etc. which can quantify optical scattering in thick tissue.
paper here
Our study on quantitative SWIR imaging is published in Nature Communications
Very excited about this one.
Darren’s new perspective article on wearable and remote patient monitoring during COVID-19 and beyond
I recently published a JBO perspective on wearable and remote patient monitoring during COVID-19 and beyond. I cover new tech, regulatory, and commercial changes that have encouraged a push towards remote patient monitoring during COVID-19, with a focus on optical technologies.
Eric Lochridge at SPIE also did a nice write up summary of my piece for SPIE news.
NSF EPSCoR funded project with Karissa Tillbury at the University of Maine
Check out this recent post on Karissa Tillbury and her student Wyatt Austin, who spent a summer in our lab developing an SFDI system as part of their NSF EPSCoR Track 4 project: "Diffuse Optical Imaging for Early Detection of Diabetic Polyneuropathy".
Darren’s interview for the ACS Making National Strides Event
Darren gave an interview with the American Cancer Society to help support their Making Strides Event.
Senior Design team wins Outstanding Senior Design Award
Our 2019/2020 Senior Design team has won the: Outstanding Senior Design Projects in Biomedical Engineering Award for their project: "Wearable SWIR Optical Probe for Measuring Lipid and Water Composition of Peripheral Edema"
Scott Gaines (BME)
Minha Lee (BME)
Sarah Nemsick (BME)
Congratulations to Scott, Minha, and Sarah, as well as their BOTLab mentors Anahita Pilvar, Sam Spink, and Lina Lin.
Darren gives SPIE JBO Webcast on Wearables
JBO webinar: Wearable, Implantable, Mobile, and Remote Biomedical Optics & Photonics
Babak Shadgan, Jessica Ramella-Roman, and Darren Roblyer
Our wearable probe featured in a new photonics.com article
BOTLAB Ph.D. student Sam Spink was interviewed for this article on using diffuse optical spectroscopy for breast imaging.
Our new review on high speed diffuse optics published in AIP Photonics
Check out our new review on high speed diffuse optics in biomedicine.
Wearable probe project featured in the Boston Globe
Check out this article on the Boston Globe about the future of breast cancer treatment that features our wearable probe project.
Wearable probe project featured in ACS TheoryLab Podcast
The BOTLab's wearable probe project for breast cancer monitoring was recently featured in the American Cancer Society's TheoryLab podcast hosted by Susanna Greer. Check it out on soundcloud, or on on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher, just look for the October 5, 2019 podcast!
openSFDI publication in the Journal of Biomedical Optics
We're excited to announce that openSFDI is now published! You can download and read the paper here.
The paper describes the design, construction, and testing of 3 different openSFDI systems. Please cite it if you publish work on your own versions of openSFDI.
Thanks to all the authors on the paper who made it possible, and all of the early adopters of openSFDI who helped make the project better during its beta phase.
Kavon Karrobi successfully defends his Ph.D.
Kavon is now headed to do a postdoc with Jonathan Liu at the University of Washington.
Congratulations Kavon, Great Job!
Syeda Tabbasum successfully defends her Ph.D.
Syeda is now headed for a postdoc with Jana Kainerstorfer at Carnegie Mellon
Congratulations Syeda, Great Job!
Hannah Peterson successfully defends her Ph.D. thesis
Hannah Peterson, Ph.D. successfully defended her thesis on April 4th. Her thesis title was: "CLINICAL FEASIBILITY OF DIFFUSE OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPIC IMAGING IN SARCOMA"
Congratulations Hannah, great job!
Yanyu Zhao wins BME best dissertation award
Yanyu, who recently defended his thesis: WIDEFIELD FUNCTIONAL AND METABOLIC IMAGING FROM 600 – 1300 NM IN THE SPATIAL FREQUENCY DOMAIN, recently won the best dissertation award for BME! Yanyu is currently doing a postdoc at Caltech in Lihong Wang's research group.
Postdoc Matthew Applegate Awarded F32 Fellowship from NIBIB
Postdoc Matthew Applegate was recently awarded an NIH F32 Fellowship form the NIBIB for his project: "Diffuse Optical B-scan Imaging (DOBI) for Breast Cancer Monitoring"
New York Times article discusses BOTLab research
Tech Reporter Janet Morrissey wrote a nice piece for the NYTs that included a discussion of the BOTLab's wearable chemotherapy monitoring probe:
Looking to Technology to Avoid Doctors’ Offices and Emergency Rooms
Boston Business Journal Article about BOTLab research
The Boston Business Journal published an article on BOTLab's wearable probe technology:
Life-saving snapshot: BU-developed device gives real-time data on tumors
BOTLab’s wearable probe featured in Reader’s Digest “Most Groundbreaking Cancer Research of 2017”
4th section in the article, entitled: "A Fitbit for cancer"
Darren Roblyer featured on YourHealthyLife Podcast
Darren Roblyer was interviewed about BOTLab research by Kim Carrigan for her YourHealthyLife Podcast (on iHeartRadio). note: you'll need to sign in or create an iHeartRadio account to listen
BOTLab receives B-BIC pilot grant for optical cardio-pulmonary monitoring
The BOSTON BIOMEDICAL INNOVATION CENTER has awarded the BOTLab a pilot grant to accelerate our ultra-fast frequency domain diffuse optical technology towards commercialization
BOTLab gets $240k from American Cancer Society (ACS)
The ACS has awarded the BOTLab a new Mission Boost grant to move our wearable breast cancer probe to the clinic.
See more about the Mission Boost Mechanism here:
https://www.cancer.org/research/we-fund-cancer-research/apply-research-grant/grant-types/mission-boost-grants.html
American Cancer Society publishes an article on our wearable tech
See this great article about our wearable tech on the ACS website
https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/new-device-aims-to-use-light-to-predict-how-well-chemotherapy-treats-breast-cancer.html
Fei Teng defends his Ph.D.
Fei Teng (ECE) successfully defended his Ph.D. on August 9th!
The BOTLab’s first Ph.D. student successfully defends
Yanyu Zhao successfully defended his Ph.D. on July 10. Congratulations to Yanyu! Yanyu is staying with the BOTLab as a postdoc in the near-term.
Ph.D. student Syeda Tabassum wins best-paper runner up at SPIE Photonics West
see the bottom of the page:
https://spie.org/PWB/conferencedetails/breast-and-reproductive-systems?SSO=1
Ph.D. student Hannah Peterson is awarded an F31 fellowship for her work in imaging pediatric sarcoma
Hannah has received 3 years of funding from the prestigious F31 mechanism for her project: "Clinical Feasibility of Chemotherapy Monitoring for Sarcoma with Diffuse Optical Spectroscopic Imaging"
Roblyer visits University of Sao Paulo, in Sao Carlos, Brazil
Professor Roblyer visited the University of Sao Paulo in Sao Carlos over spring break. He gave a seminar on BOTLab work, and got to learn all about the fabulous research in photodynamic therapy happening at the center. Thanks To Cristina Kurachi for hosting.
BOTlab research featured on Department of Defense (DOD) CDMRP website
Kavon Karrobi awarded a F99/K00 from the NCI
Botlab Ph.D. student Kavon Karrobi was recently awarded a prestigious F99/K00 from the NCI. This is a new mechanism that provides support for both Ph.D. work and a postdoctoral fellowship.
From the NCI:
The NCI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition (F99/K00) Award supports outstanding Ph.D. and other Research Doctoral candidates complete their dissertation research training (F99 phase) and transition in a timely manner to mentored, cancer-focused postdoctoral career development research positions (K00 phase).
https://www.cancer.gov/grants-training/training/funding/f99
Roblyer wins Rice BIOE Outstanding Graduate Alumnus Award
New Book Chapter on Metabolic Imaging
I was proud to work with colleagues Jonathan Liu, Ricky Wang, and Melissa Skala on this new book chapter on Imaging Metabolism:
M Wall, T Heaster, K Tilbury, WJ Choi, Darren Roblyer, R Wang, M Skala, J.T.C. Liu, “Chapter 5: Metabolic Imaging Approaches: Optical Imaging”, Imaging and Metabolism, Jason S. Lewis and Kayvan R. Keshari (Editors), Springer Nature, in production
AACR 2017 Washington D.C.
Ph.D. student Hannah Peterson presented a poster on our Osteosarcoma work at AACR 2017:
HM Peterson, BH Hoang, D Geller, R Gorlick, R Yang, J Berger, J Tingling, M Roth, J Gill, Darren Roblyer, “Clinical Feasibility of Chemotherapy Monitoring for Bone Sarcoma Patients with Diffuse Optical Spectroscopic Imaging ”, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., April 2017, poster presentation
ECI 2017 Snowmass
The BOTLab had two poster presentations at ECI Snowmass 2017:
M Applegate, Darren Roblyer, “High-speed Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI) with temporally modulated light.”, ECI Advances in Optics for Biotechnology, Medicine, and Surgery XV, Snowmass, Colorado, July 2017, poster presentation, poster prize: 3rd place
V Pera, K Karrobi, S Tabassum, Darren Roblyer, “Exploiting diffuse reflectance measurement uncertainty estimates in spatial frequency domain imaging.”, ECI Advances in Optics for Biotechnology, Medicine, and Surgery XV, Snowmass, Colorado, July 2017, poster presentation
New JBO paper on Time Modulated SFDI
New BOTLab Papers
We've published a number of papers in the last few months, here's the list:
Our new JBO paper on ultrafast optical property extractions in tissue, link here
A. Torjesen, R Istfan, Darren Roblyer, “Ultrafast wavelength multiplexed broad bandwidth digital diffuse optical spectroscopy for in vivo extraction of tissue optical properties,” Journal of Biomedical Optics, 22(3), 036009 (2017)
Our new JBO paper on a wearable probe for cancer treatment monitoring, link here
F Teng, T Cormier, A Sauer-Budge, R Chaudhury, V Pera, D Chargin, S Brookfield, N Yu Ko, Darren Roblyer, “Wearable near-infrared optical probe for continuous monitoring during breast cancer neoadjuvant chemotherapy infusions,” Journal of Biomedical Optics, 22(1), 014001 (Jan 13, 2017)
Our new BOE paper on using SFDI for preclinical cancer imaging, link here
S Tabassum, Y Zhao, R Istfan, J Wu, DJ Waxman, Darren Roblyer, “Feasibility of spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) for optically characterizing a preclinical oncology model,” Biomedical Optics Express 7(10), 4154-4170 (2016)
Cancer Research paper on the multi-site DOSI trial, link here
B Tromberg, Z Zhang, A Leproux, TD. O’Sullivan, A Cerussi, P Carpenter, R Mehta, Darren Roblyer, W Yang , KD Paulsen, BW Pogue, S Jiang, P Kaufman, A Yodh, S Chung, M Schnall, B Snyder, N Hylton, D Boas, S Carp, S Isakoff, D Mankoff, “Predicting Responses to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer: ACRIN 6691 Trial of Diffuse Optical Spectroscopic Imaging (DOSI),” Cancer Research, 2016
Our BOE paper on improving SFDI angle correction, link here
Y Zhao, S Tabassum, S Piracha, M Sobhana Nandhu, M Viapiano, and Darren Roblyer, "Angle correction for small animal tumor imaging with spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI)," Biomedical Optics Express 7(6), 2373-2384 (2016)
BOTLab presents at SPIE Photonics West 2017
The BOTLab has three oral presentations this year at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco:
- Darren Roblyer, Alyssa Torjesen, Raeef Istfan, Rachita Chaudhury, “Ultra-fast frequency domain Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy using miniaturized sources and detectors towards quantitative wearables”, SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, California, February 2016, invited oral presentation
- Darren Roblyer, Syeda Tabassum, Junjie Wu, David J. Waxman, “Spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) as a new tool for monitoring chemotherapy response and resistance”, SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, California, February 2016, invited oral presentation
- Yanyu Zhao, Kavon Karrobi, John P. Dumas, Mark C. Pierce, Darren Roblyer, “Hyperspectral spatial frequency domain imaging from 680-1,300 nm for improved estimation of tissue water and lipid concentrations”, SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, California, February 2016, oral presentation
Congratulations to Rachita Chaudhury for her new UROP award
Rachita was awarded an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) award to work on a frequency-domain wearable probe this semester.
BOTLab is Awarded St. Baldrick’s Grant for Pediatric Sarcoma
We were recently awarded a new grant to explore pediatric sarcoma using Diffuse Optics from the St. Baldrick's Foundation.
BOTLab senior design group get 3rd place in ENG at BU
The BOTLab's 2016 senior design team: Jordan Sweer, Sanjana Pannem, and Alexandra Tracey tied for 3rd place for the Societal Impact Award for their project: "A Wearable Frequency Domain Optical Probe for Real-time Monitoring of Chemotherapy Treatment". The award was chosen among all engineering senior design groups at BU.
Two New Papers from the BOTLab
Yanyu Zhao recently published his work on Quantum Yield Imaging in the Journal of Biomedical Optics:
Current and former undergrad researchers in the BOTLab recently published their methods for 3D printing optical phantoms in Biomedical Optics Express.
BOTLab presents at SPIE Photonics West
The BOTLab has three oral presentations this year at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco:
1. Yanyu Zhao, BME Ph.D. student: Spatial Mapping of Fluorophore Quantum Yield in Scattering Media
2. Fei Teng, ECE Ph.D. student: A wearable continuous-wave optical device for continuous monitoring during neoadjuvant chemotherapy infusions
3. Sanjana Pannem and Jordan Sweer: Customized three-dimensional printed optical phantoms with user-defined absorption and scattering
Undergraduate Researcher Jordan Sweer featured for his work in 3D printed phantoms
Jordan Sweer, an undergraduate researcher in the BOTLab, was recently featured in a video where he describes his work in 3D printed optical phantoms. Jordan is a recent recipient of the Joseph Healey Distinguished Fellowship for his work in our group, one of only three recipients this year at BU.