{"id":711,"date":"2013-07-15T09:19:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T13:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=711"},"modified":"2017-07-28T09:21:48","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T13:21:48","slug":"new-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/07\/new-light\/","title":{"rendered":"In a New Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"in-a-new-light\"<\/a>
\nLight defines our world.<\/strong> It lets us see, gives us warmth and energy, and allows us to grow food.<\/p>\n

Electromagnetic radiation. Photons. Packets of energy. Waves. Particles. There are few facets of our modern lives that light, in its many forms, does not touch. Light enables the integrated circuit chips in our computers, the displays on our smartphones, and the ultrahigh-speed Internet we rely on. Indeed, light-based technologies have revolutionized everything\u2014 from health care and manufacturing to defense and communications.<\/p>\n

Advances in optics (which deals with light\u2019s behavior and properties) and photonics (which has more to do with light\u2019s applications) have become \u201ccentral to modern life,\u201d according to the National Research Council, which recently issued a report calling for a National Photonic Initiative to foster collaboration between industry, government, and academia to identify and advance key areas of photonics research.<\/p>\n

Whiting School engineers are part of the national thrust to further the understanding and application of optics and photonics. By pushing the frontiers of light, they are pioneering techniques that could advance cancer diagnosis, surgical tools, hydrogen fuel production, and microscopic imaging. And that\u2019s just a start.<\/p>\n

Light-Based Surgical Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of disease sufferers, accident victims, and war veterans gain new lives every year thanks to organ transplants, reconstructive surgery, and the reattachment of body parts. These tricky operations require surgeons to sew together blood vessels that are a millimeter or less in width, and a few tens of microns thick. Not only are the vessels tiny, they are semitransparent when blood is removed.<\/p>\n

\"light-feature-jin-kang\"<\/a>
Jin Kang is using laser light to measure submillimeter distances and to create highly accurate, detailed images of tissue features just microns in size.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Surgeons performing such delicate suturing procedures must use microscopes to see that minuscule depth and then move their needle through it. But microscopes have their limitations because they do not offer adequate depth perception.<\/p>\n

\u201cA common mistake that surgeons make is to go through both walls of the vessel,\u201d says Jin Kang, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Jacob Suter Jammer Professor of Electrical Engineering.<\/a> \u201cSo instead of suturing two parts of a vessel to each other, they end up sealing the vessel.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fiber optics expert, Kang is using laser light to measure submillimeter distances and to create highly accurate, detailed images of tissue features just microns in size. He is also perfecting a surgical tool using this light-based sensing system. \u201cIt\u2019s very similar to ultrasound but we\u2019re using a laser beam instead of sound waves,\u201d Kang says. \u201cWhile ultrasound has a resolution of hundreds of microns, our system has a resolution of a few microns.\u201d<\/p>\n

In any imaging technology, the smallest detail you can resolve depends on the size of the wavelength used to make the image. Light, with wavelengths less than a micron, can create images with submicron resolution.<\/p>\n

Kang uses low-power light from a nearinfrared laser with wavelengths ranging from 700 nanometers to 1300 nanometers. An optical fiber delivers the laser light to the imaging site and also collects the light reflected from different parts of the tissue. A computer processes the collected light signals to recreate an image.<\/p>\n

Instead of peering through the eyepiece of a microscope, a surgeon suturing blood vessels could place the optical fiber sensor near the surgery site and look at an image on a screen to guide her needle. Kang\u2019s collaborators at Wilmer Eye Institute<\/a> recently tested the imaging system during a delicate surgery of a rabbit\u2019s eye, taking pictures of the different parts of the animal\u2019s retina.<\/p>\n

Kang and his team eventually want to extend their fiber-optic imaging system for surgeries deep inside body tissue. Right now, the system can only create images of features present up to two millimeters below tissue surface. Strong light scattering by body tissue keeps light from penetrating beyond that distance.<\/p>\n

He also has other plans in the works. \u201cWe want to use faster lasers and detectors to achieve a real-time, higher-resolution 3-D imaging system,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Unlike the big machines used for today\u2019s imaging techniques, the laser and fiber-optic approach entails a simple, inexpensive, portable tool. \u201cThe lasers and sensors are in a backend system that is the size of a shoebox,\u201d Kang says. \u201cThe optical fiber, meanwhile, is a fine thread 100 micrometers in diameter. The nice thing is, the optical fiber could be integrated into any surgical tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, he has already incorporated his optical fiber sensor into a \u201csmart\u201d surgical tool in collaboration with Hopkins\u2019 Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology. The tool is designed to compensate for the near-invisible tremors of a surgeon\u2019s hands and keep the surgical instrument steady.<\/p>\n

The end of the optical fiber is mounted on the tip of a surgical instrument and is connected to a motor that controls the axial movement of the instrument tip. The system gauges the tip\u2019s position relative to tissue and then adjusts it. Those tiny adjustments go unnoticed by the surgeon, who can use it to perform delicate surgical procedures more safely and precisely.<\/p>\n

Others are developing similar 3-D surgery-assisting devices, but those are more complicated, Kang points out. They involve external sensors that are not embedded on a surgical tool. The sensors track the motion of the surgical tool tip and then do 3-D position control.<\/p>\n

The technology behind Kang\u2019s tool has been licensed to robotic surgery companies such as Intuitive Surgical. It could find use in surgeries on the sensitive neural circuits of the brain; the fine structures of the inner ear; and the retina, the thin light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye, Kang says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fighting Cancer with Shiny Nanocrystals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quantum dots, nanometer-sized semiconductor crystals that glow brightly in pure, intense colors, hold promise for many medical applications. They are brighter and longer lasting than the organic dyes used today to image tumors, and they hold promise for treating tumors via light-triggered heating.<\/p>\n

\"jeff-wang\"<\/a>
Jeff Wang is working on an ultra-sensitive quantum-dot\u2013based technique that would allow doctors to detect the presence and quantity of cancer genetic markers in body fluids.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nanocrystals could also be harnessed to help doctors catch cancer early. Jeff Wang, associate professor of mechanical engineering<\/a>, is developing a technique to do just that. One place doctors can look for early warning signs of cancer is DNA, the helical strand carrying the unique genetic blueprint of every individual.<\/p>\n

Long before cancer symptoms become apparent, invisible signals called genetic biomarkers appear on DNA. They can be an inherited or mutated gene sequence or a chemical change at a specific location on DNA.<\/p>\n

But spotting cancer biomarkers is not easy. They are present in body fluids such as blood and sputum in extremely small concentrations. Wang is working on an ultra-sensitive quantum-dot-based technique that would allow doctors to detect the presence and quantity of cancer genetic markers in body fluids. A larger quantity means higher cancer risk.<\/p>\n

The technique could lead to personalized cancer medicine. \u201cBy identifying the markers, doctors could provide treatment plans tailored to a patient\u2019s genetic information,\u201d Wang says. Another important use for the test would be in monitoring whether a therapy is working effectively.<\/p>\n

Wang says the nanocrystals should help spot genetic biomarkers in body fluids with more speed and precision than the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method commonly used today.<\/p>\n

PCR involves making billions of copies of a piece of DNA in order to spot target gene sequences. \u201cMost of the time, standard PCR isn\u2019t sensitive enough to look at DNA circulating in blood and present in other body fluids,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to perform the test multiple times to detect the gene sequence, and the method is inconsistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wang has been working on a quantumdot- based cancer detection test for three years with colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. They introduce a protein and a fluorescent dye into the fluid sample along with quantum dots. The molecules attach to the biomarker-carrying DNA, and pin it to a quantum dot. Each nanocrystal can carry tens of dye-tagged DNA strands.<\/p>\n

When the researchers shine blue laser light on the fluid, quantum dots transfer the light to the dye molecules, which start shining. Analyzing the fluorescence signal reveals how much biomarker is present.<\/p>\n

The test has proved its mettle in detecting a cancer marker called DNA methylation. Methylation stops the release of tumor-suppressor proteins, making it easier for cancer cells to multiply. Early findings show that the test could detect 50 or fewer target DNA strands in sputum samples from lung cancer patients.<\/p>\n

Wang is now perfecting the technique using real-world fluid samples taken at the Kimmel Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

More recently, he has developed a quantum-dot-based tool that could help doctors monitor whether a drug is fighting cancer as expected. The test relies on spotting changes in the mobility of the nanocrystals in fluid.<\/p>\n

He has found a way to precisely \u201ctune\u201d the mobility of quantum dots depending on the number of target DNA strands tethered to the dot. Measuring the mobility indicates the amount of biomarker DNA present in fluid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should give doctors a way to measure minute biomarker quantity changes,\u201d Wang says. \u201cIf a drug isn\u2019t working, there won\u2019t be a decrease in biomarker level.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"mark-foster\"<\/a>
Mark Foster is taking advantage of high-speed lasers to build the fastest known imaging system.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Breaking Speed Records<\/strong><\/p>\n

How can you measure and process data at blistering speeds hundreds of times faster than is possible now? That question drives the research of Mark Foster, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering<\/a> at the Whiting School.<\/p>\n

For the solution, he says you have to tap into the ultrafast speed of light and the strange behavior of light governed by the branch of optics known as nonlinear optics.<\/p>\n

Foster is taking advantage of high-speed lasers to build the fastest imaging system known to date. The system currently snaps images at rates of 100 million frames per second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could do it at even higher speeds,\u201d says Foster, who was recently awarded the National Science Foundation\u2019s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, a five-year $400,000 grant.<\/p>\n

Conventional cameras capture images at rates of 1 million frames a second. The camera\u2019s sensors detect sunlight bouncing off every part of the object to recreate the image. Each part of the object or scene is mapped to a pixel of the image.<\/p>\n

In Foster\u2019s system, extremely short flashes of light from a femtosecond laser are thrown on the object in a random pattern, illuminating certain parts of it. The object is illuminated multiple times using different patterns. Only about half of the object is illuminated at a time. And every time, sensors measure the light reflected from the object.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many samples you take depends on the size and complexity of the image you want,\u201d Foster says. \u201cBut you need many fewer measurements than it would take for a pixel-bypixel measurement of the entire object.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the measurement data is then fed into a computer. Sophisticated computer algorithms that Foster has developed crunch the data to reconstruct the image. \u201cThere is enough information in the measurements generated from the random patterns that the algorithm can figure out what the object is,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The real breakthrough that leads to the system\u2019s blistering speed is the technique that Foster and his students have developed to generate the random patterns that illuminate the object. Femtosecond laser pulses contain hundreds of different colors of light. Foster\u2019s system gives each pulse a unique color spectrum. Then it spreads out the colors on a two-dimensional space to create the random pattern.<\/p>\n

Foster says that the high-rate imaging system could allow lab technicians to screen millions of cells to spot abnormalities that indicate disease.<\/p>\n

The high-speed signal processing smarts behind the imaging system could be applied to many different types of data, he points out. The ability to process vast amounts of data would be useful anytime you want to make real-time measurements of things happening at a very fast time scale.<\/p>\n

For example, the technique could make cellphone communication more efficient. \u201cCellphones communicate on microwave frequencies,\u201d he says. \u201cThe spectrum available is limited and one thing people like to know is what frequencies are being used and which ones are available.\u201d Foster\u2019s data-processing technique could aid in rapidly scanning the radio frequency spectrum to see which of the millions of frequencies are free for use. The military could also use the technique to analyze radar in real time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Designer Composites<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laser light can be precisely directed and focused on tight spots to unleash big bursts of energy. And because laser light interacts with materials in unique ways, lasers give researchers a means to tweak materials at extremely small dimensions.<\/p>\n

Spicer\u2019s goal is to develop a laser-based technique to grow nanoparticles and tailor their compositions, shapes, and sizes directly inside polymers.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

James Spicer, professor of materials science<\/a>, is taking advantage of lasers to add new members to a family of materials known as polymer matrix nanocomposites. Composite materials, made by adding fillers to polymers, are stronger or more heat resistant, and are found in the Boeing 787 and in re-entry heat shields for spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Using nanoparticles as fillers takes composites to the next level. Materials with nanometer dimensions have surprising properties that depend on the particle\u2019s size, shape, and spacing. Until now, the potential of polymer nanocomposites has remained untapped largely because it is difficult to make the specialty materials affordably in large quantities.<\/p>\n

Spicer\u2019s goal is to develop a laser-based technique to grow nanoparticles and tailor their compositions, shapes, and sizes directly inside polymers. This would make it easier for scientists and industry to engineer nanocomposites with novel properties. They could, for instance, create polymers that are tough and scratch-proof, that conduct electricity, or are fire-retardant.<\/p>\n

Today, making polymer nanocomposites involves generating the nanoparticles in a solution, separating them, and then distributing them in a liquid matrix that is subsequently cured. \u201cThe issue is that the nanoparticles can stick to one another, making it difficult to distribute them uniformly and get the properties you want,\u201d Spicer says.<\/p>\n

His approach is considerably simpler and more versatile. He starts with a clear, inert polymer that acts like a matrix to hold nanoparticles in place. The nanoparticles, depending on the application, can be metals, semiconductors, or ceramics.<\/p>\n

First, he infuses the polymer with molecules containing atoms of the target nanoparticle. Heat decomposes the molecules, leaving behind atoms that clump into nanoparticles, which are dispersed randomly in the polymer matrix.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we want to tweak the nanoparticle to give it a personality,\u201d Spicer says. Change its chemical structure, say, or give it a coating of some other useful material.<\/p>\n

This is where light enters the picture. After adding carefully chosen photonic materials to the nanocomposite, Spicer exposes the composite to short bursts of light from high energy, ultrafast lasers. Under the light pulses the photonic materials heat up and interact in sophisticated ways with the nanoparticles, tweaking their properties.<\/p>\n

By selectively shining certain kinds of laser light and using multiple photonic materials, Spicer says it should be possible to control the structure, shape, size, and distribution of nanoparticles in the polymer. In other words, he gains the ability to quickly conjure different types of polymer nanocomposites with desired properties. \u201cThe real advantage of our approach is that it\u2019s very scalable,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want to make a lot of these materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to engineer complicated nanostructures within polymers using photonic methods,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want to understand how to engineer these particles, to form particles with desired features in order to carry out a specific task.\u201d<\/p>\n

His research could have broad applications. But one area he is focusing on is making photocatalytic materials, which speed up chemical reactions under light irradiation. Such composites could be tailored to split water and create hydrogen fuel, or to break down contaminants and purify water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By harnessing the power of optics and photonics, Whiting School researchers are pioneering techniques that could advance cancer diagnosis, hydrogen fuel production\u2014and a whole lot more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","issue-summer-2013"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn a New Light - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/07\/new-light\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/07\/new-light\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In a New Light - 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