2022 Colloquia & Seminars

Cristina Canavesi, PhD, MBA, LighTopTech Corp., President

ABSTRACT: 

Histopathology, while suffering from morbidity, cost, and time associated with biopsy, plays a key role in the detection and monitoring of disease. Optical technologies, with the capability to non-invasively image the cellular structures in real-time, have the potential to revolutionize medicine. Gabor-domain optical coherence microscopy (GDOCM) is a non-invasive, high-definition, three-dimensional imaging technique leveraging concepts of low-coherence interferometry, liquid lens technology, confocal microscopy, high-speed imaging, and precision scanning. By operating at a high numerical aperture to improve transverse resolution and recovering the resulting loss in depth of focus by acquiring multiple volumes dynamically refocusing inside the sample with no moving parts, GDOCM breaks the cellular resolution limit of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and achieves isotropic 2 μm resolution in 3D. GDOCM enables optical biopsy capabilities that span both medical and industrial applications. In the past decade, GDOCM has been demonstrated for cellular imaging in 3D in a number of clinical applications, including dermatology, oncology and ophthalmology, as well as to characterize materials in industrial applications. The structural imaging capability of GDOCM has been enhanced by adding functional modalities and by incorporating machine learning techniques. In particular, convolutional neural networks were applied to automatically segment the endothelial cells in human cornea for quantitative, unbiased assessment of corneal health. A novel algorithm for optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), an attractive diagnostic tool for non-invasive, label-free vascular imaging in vivo, was demonstrated in conjunction with GDOCM to extract high-resolution cutaneous vasculature, significantly improving the visualization and characterization of micro-capillaries in vivo.

BIO: 

Cristina Canavesi is the Co-Founder and President of LighTopTech Corp., an optical technology company based in Rochester, NY (United States) that is building innovative optical instruments for noninvasive imaging in medical and industrial fields. She holds a Ph.D. in Optics from The Institute of Optics, and an MBA from Simon School of Business, University of Rochester. Dr. Canavesi was a Fulbright fellow. She was awarded the SPIE Optical Design and Engineering Scholarship (2012) and was the 2015 recipient of the Hugh H. Whitney Award at the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester. Dr. Canavesi is the Secretary of WiSTEE (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Entrepreneurship) Connect and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. Dr. Canavesi was a 2019 Millennials in Manufacturing Awardee and was selected for Inspiring Fifty Italy in 2021. Her research interests include biomedical imaging for optical biopsy and image processing for unbiased assessment of tissue properties.

TITLE:  Applications of Gabor-domain optical coherence microscopy

DATE:  February 21, 2022

TIME: 3:30 PM (EST)

LOCATION: ZOOM