Award Abstract # 1455671
Shedding new light on cell-matrix interactions: instrumentation development for non-invasive, real-time microscopic elasticity imaging

NSF Org: DBI
Division of Biological Infrastructure
Recipient: TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATION
Initial Amendment Date: April 9, 2015
Latest Amendment Date: May 11, 2020
Award Number: 1455671
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Robert Fleischmann
DBI  Division of Biological Infrastructure
BIO  Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date: May 1, 2015
End Date: October 31, 2020 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $554,810.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $554,810.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2015 = $382,762.00
FY 2017 = $172,048.00
History of Investigator:
  • Vladislav Yakovlev (Principal Investigator)
     yakovlev@tamu.edu
  • Roland Kaunas (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
 3124 TAMU
 COLLEGE STATION
 TX  US  77843-3124
(979)862-6777
Sponsor Congressional District: 10
Primary Place of Performance: Texas Engineering Experiment Station
 5025 ETB
 College Station
 TX  US  77843-3120
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:		 10
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): QD1MX6N5YTN4
Parent UEI: QD1MX6N5YTN4
NSF Program(s): INSTRUMENTAT & INSTRUMENT DEVP
Primary Program Source: 01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):
Program Element Code(s): 110800
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.074

ABSTRACT

An award is made to Texas A&M University to develop new instrumentation for a Brillouin imaging system that will measure the elastic properties of cells and extracellular matrix in a 3D cell culture system. Elastic properties of molecular, sub-cellular and cellular structures play a crucial role in many areas of Biology. A prominent example is in embryonic development, where changes in the elastic properties of cells and extracellular matrix contribute to tissue reorganization necessary for organ development. While mechanical interactions between cells and surrounding matrix plays a critical role in many physiological and pathophysiological processes, measurements within 3D tissues have been difficult. Conventional techniques have limited spatial resolution and/or require physical contact with the sample. Brillouin spectroscopy is truly non-invasive and provides information on the elastic properties of biological samples at the subcellular level. While Brillouin spectroscopy has been widely used for elasticity measurements in inorganic materials, the technique has been very slow to catch on in the biological community due to weak signal and difficulty dealing with light scattering.

This research project builds upon recent advances in spontaneous and coherent Brillouin scattering microscopies that provide more than three orders of magnitude increase in signal, improving spatial resolution and overcoming strong light scattering. The investigators will apply their optimized Brillouin imaging set-up to characterize dynamic changes in the local mechanical properties of collagen matrices caused by internally generated contractile forces as well as externally applied loads. Imaging the time-varying distribution of stiffness in the matrix will shed new light on the local mechanical environment to which cells ultimately respond to regulate their function. In parallel to these important applications, they aim to develop the next generation nonlinear Brillouin imaging to double spatial resolution and increase temporal resolution by 100-fold.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 54)
Maria Troyanova-Wood, Zachary Coker, Andrew Traverso, Vladislav V Yakovlev "Using Brillouin microspectroscopy to characterize adipocytes? response to lipid droplet accumulation" Proc. of SPIE , v.10067 , 2017 , p.100670K-1 10.1117/12.2253391
Andrew J Traverso, Brett Hokr, Zhenhuan Yi, Luqi Yuan, Shoichi Yamaguchi, Marlan O Scully, Vladislav V Yakovlev "Two-Photon Infrared Resonance Can Enhance Coherent Raman Scattering" Physical review letters , v.120 , 2018 , p.063602 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.063602
Andrew J Traverso, Chris O'Brien, Brett H Hokr, Jonathan V Thompson, Luqi Yuan, Charles W Ballmann, Anatoly A Svidzinsky, Georgi I Petrov, Marlan O Scully and Vladislav V Yakovlev "Directional coherent light via intensity-induced sideband emission" Light: Science & Applications , v.6 , 2017 , p.e16262 10.1038/lsa.2016.262
Andrew J. Traverso, Jonathan V. Thompson, Zachary A. Steelman, Zhaokai Meng, Marlan O. Scully, and Vladislav V. Yakovlev "Dual Raman-Brillouin Microscope for Chemical and Mechanical Characterization and Imaging" Analytical Chemistry , v.87 , 2015 , p.7519 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02104
A. Rakymzhan T. Yakupov Z. Yelemessova R. Bukasov V.V. Yakovlev Z.N. Utegulov "Time?resolved assessment of drying plants by Brillouin and Raman spectroscopies" Journal of Raman Spectroscopy , 2019 10.1002/jrs.5742
A. Shutov, G. I. Petrov, D. Wang, M. O. Scully, and V. V. Yakovlev "Highly efficient tunable picosecond deep ultraviolet laser system for Raman spectroscopy" Optics Letters , v.44 , 2020 , p.5760
Ballmann CW, Meng ZK, Yakovlev VV "Nonlinear Brillouin spectroscopy: what makes it a better tool for biological viscoelastic measurements" Biomedical Optics Express , v.10 , 2019 , p.1750 10.1364/boe.10.001750
Maria Troyanova-Wood, Zhaokai Meng, Hannah Silverberg, Vladislav V Yakovlev "Brillouin microspectroscopy assessment of tissue differentiation during embryonic development" Proc. of SPIE , v.10043 , 2017 , p.1004311-1 10.1117/12.2253377
Brett H. Hokr, Jonathan V. Thompson, Joel N. Bixler, Dawson T. Nodurft, Gary D. Noojin, Brandon Redding, Robert J. Thomas, Hui Cao, Benjamin A. Rockwell, Marlan O. Scully, and Vladislav V. Yakovlev "Enabling time resolved microscopy with random Raman lasing" Scientific Reports , v.7 , 2017 , p.44572 10.1038/srep44572
C. B. Marble and V. V. Yakovlev "Biomedical Optics Applications of Advanced Lasers and Nonlinear Optics" Journal of Biomedical Optics , v.25 , 2020 , p.040902
C. B. Marble, K. S. Marble and V. V. Yakovlev "Nanoscale optical assessment of photochemical changes of SU-8 photoresist induced by ultrashort near-IR optical excitation" Applied Physics A , v.126 , 2020 , p.808 10.1007/s00339-020-03991-8
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 54)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

This research project was focused on developing Brillouin microscopy for a broad area of biological research. Brillouin spectroscopy can assess local viscoelastic properties with a diffraction limited spatial resolution. This research project resulted in the development of both spontaneous and stimulated Brillouin microscopy systems, characterized the performance of those instruments and applied those instruments to a wide range of biological problems. New instrumentation was successfully combined with other optical imaging modalities, such as fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy imaging. Viscoelastic properties’ measurements were found to be important for characterizing biological solutions, cells and tissues as related to biomaterials development for regenerative medicine, cancer imaging and progression, obesity, developmental biology and agriculture. On a broader impact, an international community was formed to apply Brillouin spectroscopy for a wide range of biological problems. Several systems developed by the PI’s students are currently being used internally and by outside labs for biological imaging. 4 graduate students have successfully graduated with their PhD and are currently being employed by industrial and government laboratories. Two Hispanic, two female and one Army Veteran graduate students were supported through this project. A total of over 100 journal and peer-reviewed full-length conference proceedings were published which acknowledged support of this research grant. The PI presented over 50 invited talks and 1 Webinar (sponsored by the Optical Society of America).

 


Last Modified: 12/30/2020
Modified by: Vladislav V Yakovlev

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