Event Date
Event Date
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive form of malignant brain tumor and current treatment involves maximum surgical resection. However, accurately identifying tumor margins during surgery remains a major challenge. We developed a dual-modality imaging system combining fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm) and polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). FLIm provides compositional information based on endogenous fluorophores such as NADH and FAD, while PS-OCT offers structural and depth-resolved imaging with birefringence contrast for white matter and has shown sensitivity to lipid-rich regions, which are an emerging biomarker for GBM. The system is based on a double-cladding fiber coupler and enables robust, co-registered imaging. Initial ex-vivo experiments on goat brain slices demonstrate sufficient signal quality and tissue contrast. This approach has the potential to support real-time, label-free tumor margin detection and improve outcomes in GBM surgery.
Presenter
Clara Kristen
Univ. of California, Davis (United States)
Clara Kristen is a visiting scholar at the Marcu Lab at the University of California, Davis, where she is working on brain tumor margin detection using fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). She is currently completing her master’s degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Jena, where she previously worked on the development of an OCT system for middle ear diagnostics. In September 2025, she will begin her PhD studies at UC Davis, to further pursue research in optical imaging and its clinical applications.