SBIR Phase II: Ultrathin endomicroscope

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to empower brain scientists with a high-resolution optical imaging instrument to reach currently inaccessible regions of the brain with minimal damage. There are compelling reasons to conduct animal neuroscience research, including improving our understanding of biology, investigating the brain in action, and most importantly developing new therapies for diseases affecting the brain. Animal neuroscience research contributes to studying potential new treatments for mental disorders like Alzheimer's disease which, according to estimates, will affect more than 10 million people in the US by 2050. The availability of novel neuroscience imaging probes for animal studies could have a significant impact on the development of therapies and drugs to tackle mental disorders. The proposed imaging approach will enable high-impact instrumentation for biomedical applications by advancing neuroscience through animal model studies. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will advance the design, optimization, and validation of a robust and compact commercial endomicroscope prototype instrument that is amenable for use with animal models in neuroscience labs. The company’s key innovation is in achieving the fundamentally thinnest mechanism to acquire and transmit a high information content image in real time. The ultrathin endomicroscope has a cross-area more than ten times smaller than the thinnest existing endoscope. Current solutions are appropriate for insertion in large cavities but they produce excessive damage in applications such as deep brain imaging. Furthermore, the ultrathin endomicroscope enables multiple 3D imaging modalities with micrometer resolution as well as arbitrary laser pattern projection for photo-stimulation. The objective is to develop a new class of fundamentally less invasive techniques and to validate a prototype instrument in animal models. It is anticipated that in-vivo imaging of neurons with subcellular resolution at depth will become routine with minimal tissue damage. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.