Optical Photothermal Infrared (OPTIR) microscope for in-situ characterization of cellular metabolism and chemical processes in cells and tissue

A key goal of bioenergy research is largely focused on converting low-energy, photosynthetically-generated plant sugars to high-value, high-energy bio-chemicals and biofuel products. Biofuel precursors are generated via cellular processes that occur on the microscopic scale, but currently available analytical instrumentation does not provide the ability to adequately probe critical biochemical processes on these length scales. Infrared spectroscopy, for example, arguably the most widely used technique for chemical analysis, has a fundamental spatial resolution limit on the scale of many microns. This phase IIB project aims to complete the development of and commercially launch a novel analytical instrument based on Optical Photothermal Infrared (OPTIR) spectroscopy. The OPTIR technique can achieve >10X better spatial resolution than conventional infrared spectroscopy. Phase II research involved the development and testing of an alpha prototype instrument of this product and including demonstration of OPTIR with 300 nm spatial resolution, signal to noise ratio of >20,000 (competitive with conventional infrared spectroscopy), thickness detection limit of 50 spectra/second, as well as expanded measurement environments, and the feasibility for co-located OPTIR with fluorescence microscopy. Phase II research also demonstrated the ability to perform spectroscopy and chemical imaging to localize and characterize key chemical constituents like lipids and carbohydrates in plant-based samples for bio-energy applications. The Phase IIB project is designed leverage progress made in Phase II to complete product development to commercially launch the breakthrough OPTIR product, as well as taking advantage of new opportunities to expand the applicability and draw of the OPTIR to much larger customer base, beyond the scope of early adopters. Compelling opportunities include integration of fluorescence microscopy with OPTIR, expanding the wavelength range and reducing the cost of infrared sources used in OPTIR, and maturing widefield OPTIR for commercialization. Additional efforts will focus on improving data integrity (including a collaboration with Prof. Gregory Hartland at Notre Dame) as well as expanding automating measurement and analysis, thus dramatically increasing user productivity, and reducing the required operator skill level. This project will also extend bio-energy related research, using OPTIR to perform studies of functional metabolism for bioenergy applications on plant-based samples. Towards that goal, the project includes close collaboration with bioenergy expert Prof. Basil Nikolau of Iowa State University. Completion of this project will lead to the development of a new commercial instrument based on the OPTIR technology that will provide a robust ability to perform non- destructive chemical analysis for key problems in bioenergy research, but also diverse applications in the life science and materials sciences.