Development of a Motionless 3D Fluorescent Microscope

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant FINCH is a new imaging technology developed by Celloptic Inc FINCH is the acronym for Fresnel Incoherent Correlation Holography a single beam laserless and motionless holographic principle in which a fluorescent holographic representation of the complete D volume is captured on a digital camera The method obviates the need for serial stacks and captures the complete information of a D volume into a single hologram Digital reconstruction of the hologram in a computer yields in focus images at any plane in a specimen A user friendly FINCHSCOPE which is the hardware and software implementation of the FINCH technology to microscopy will be developed during the course of this project It will be based upon previous work done by the investigators who have been perfecting the technique during the last years In this work several pre production prototypes of the hardware and software will be developed and field tested under research investigator use One version of the system will be developed as an attachment to existing fluorescent microscopes in which the FINCHSCOPE hardware is simply substituted for the camera and binocular viewing port An import feature of the FINCHSCOPE is its ability to image microscopic objects in D at resolution which exceeds the optical limits in microscopy andquot super resolutionandquot Because of the simplicity of the FINCHSCOPE super resolution implementation this product will be dramatically less expensive and simpler than other super resolution systems and thus make higher resolution fluorescent microscopy available to many more laboratories The widespread ability of scientists and diagnostic laboratories to view specimens at improved resolution is anticipated to enhance the discovery of disease processes both in research and in diagnostics for improved delivery of health care PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE A new kind of optical fluorescence microscope with higher resolution super resolution than standard optical microscope limits is being developed The andquot super resolutionandquot technique using current technology is currently complex and very expensive An much simpler and cost effective microscope is being developed by Celloptic Inc based upon their new holographic principle called FINCH Considerable improvement in the sensitivity of diagnostic and surgical techniques is anticipated