{"id":6617,"date":"2024-05-01T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/?p=6617"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:13:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:13:27","slug":"blinking-heart-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2024\/05\/01\/blinking-heart-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinking Heart Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Mentors<\/h3>\n<table width=\"357\" height=\"42\" style=\"border: 2px solid white; margin-bottom: 0;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid white;\">\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-basic has-title post-4312 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-bme departments-ece departments-mse-dept departments-me affiliation-faculty affiliation-staff program-year-yr-2015 program-year-yr-2016 program-year-yr-2017 program-year-yr-2018 program-year-yr-2019 program-year-yr-2021 program-year-yr-2022 program-year-yr-2023 program-year-yr-2024\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/thomas-bifano\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-basic\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/09\/Bifano_HS-Cropped-copy-600x600-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-basic\">Thomas Bifano**<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-basic\">Center Director, Professor (BME, ECE, ME, MSE)<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid white;\">\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-basic has-title post-6633 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-me affiliation-graduate-student program-year-yr-2022 program-year-yr-2023 program-year-yr-2024\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/francisco-sanchez-2\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-basic\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-basic\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/04\/Sanchez_Francisco-600x600-copy-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-basic\">Francisco Sanchez<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-basic\">PhD Candidate<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3 style=\"margin-top: 0;\">Project Description<\/h3>\n<p>Engineered cardiac tissues (ECT) derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells will spontaneously contract with a &#8220;heartbeat&#8221; caused by successive action potentials. The dynamics of that contractility can be used to evaluate tissue phenotype and to assess tissue health and maturation. One common way to evaluate contractility dynamics is to monitor deflection of compliant polymer structures anchoring the ECT.<\/p>\n<p>In the Bifano Lab, we pioneered a high-throughput platform to monitor that deflection for a large array of ECTs simultaneously. Another way to evaluate contractility dynamics is to monitor fluorescence of chemical indicators of calcium ions. Action potentials cause a rapid influx of calcium ions, and consequently a flash of light at each ECT heartbeat. The flash of light is dim, however, so the challenge in this project is to design a fluorescence imaging system capable of monitoring calcium transients in a large array of ECTs using the high-throughput platform.<\/p>\n<div class=\" bu-callout alignright\"><\/p>\n<h3>Research Participant<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Program: INM RET<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hear how Christopher Alba took what he learned back to his classroom.<br \/>\n<a href='#' class='button button'>Learn More<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Research Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Model fluorescence excitation, emission, and optical imaging characteristics (e.g., numerical aperture of illumination and detection) of the high-throughput platform to estimate signal to noise expected in a practical implementation of the calcium imaging system.<\/li>\n<li>Experimentally verify fluorescence signaling dynamics for individual ECTs and arrays of ECTs.<\/li>\n<li>Correlate fluorescence dynamics with measured contractile force dynamics.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Learning Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Understand fluorescence labeling, imaging, excitation physics, emission characteristics, and photobleaching.<\/li>\n<li>Learn practical optical design techniques, including microscopic imaging, spectral optical filtering, camera sensor sensitivity, efficiency, and temporal response characteristics.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Timeline<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Week 1:<\/strong><\/span> Orientation; review of literature; Hands on training.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 2-3:<\/strong><\/span> Analysis and modeling; fluorescence imaging experiments; mock-ups of illumination and sensing.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 4-5:<\/strong><\/span> Integration of fluorescence imaging subsystem in the high-throughput platform; Measurement of ECT fluorescence dynamics.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Week 6:<\/strong><\/span> Reporting and assessment of progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mentors Project Description Engineered cardiac tissues (ECT) derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells will spontaneously contract with a &#8220;heartbeat&#8221; caused by successive action potentials. The dynamics of that contractility can be used to evaluate tissue phenotype and to assess tissue health and maturation. One common way to evaluate contractility dynamics is to monitor deflection [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22960,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[125,127,68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22960"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6617"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10225,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6617\/revisions\/10225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}