SMART BioSyM talk by Dr Vijay Singh (SMART)

Event Date: 27 Apr 2015 08:00 AM - 27 Apr 2015 09:00 AM

Event Venue: Enterprise Wing, Level 5, Perseverance Rooms 1/2

Confocal reflectance quantitative phase microscope for studying cell and nuclear membranes mechanics

Seminar Abstract
In order to generate the contrast in unstained cell, phase resolved techniques are available. Over the past two decades, significant advancement of quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) have been made, which allow measurement of cellular plasma membrane fluctuation with resolutions on the scale of nanometres and milliseconds, and used for staging of malaria parasite infection of red blood cells (RBCs). The developed QPM methods are mainly transmission based and have good sensitivity and speed but these methods lack three-dimensional (3D) resolution.

Studies show that changes in nuclear mechanics are accompanied by defects in gene expression and a distorted nuclear morphology. Mostrecently, it is shown that the nuclear membrane deformation is suggested as a marker for isolating mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from bone marrow. Among the several other biophysical markers considered for MSCs, it was found that cell stiffness and nuclear membrane fluctuations correlated strongly with multipotency.

In this talk a newly developed confocal reflectance quantitative phase microscopy system is presented, that can be used to study the biomechanics of intracellular level structures. This reflection phase microscope will enable non-invasive, marker-free, 3D dynamic imaging of dimensional fluctuations of both the cellular plasma and nuclei membranes.

Speaker’s Biography
Vijay Raj Singh received Master of Technology (M.Tech.) degree in Applied Optics from IIT Delhi, India in 2003, and Ph.D. degree in Optical Engineering from NTU, Singapore in 2008. From 2007-2010, he worked at AEM Singapore Pte Ltd and NTU, Singapore and focused on development of digital holographic microscope tool as table-top and handheld systems for dynamic mechanical characterization of microelectronic devices. Currently he is working with SMART-BioSym centre, Singapore and his research interests include 3D optical microscopy methods for biomedical imaging applications, quantitative phase imaging methods, image reconstruction and image processing algorithms development.