Colloquium: Seeing life in a new light: from simple classical physics to quantum-enhanced imaging

ABSTRACT

The progress of biomedical sciences depends on the availability of advanced instrumentation and imaging tools capable of attaining the state of biological systems in vivo without using exogenous markers. Mechanical forces and local elasticity play a central role in understanding physical interactions in all living systems.  We demonstrate a novel way to image microscopic viscoelastic properties of biological systems using Brillouin microspectroscopy [1]. In my talk, I will discuss the ways how an old spectroscopic tool can be used for real time microscopic imaging [2-3] and provide possible solutions to long standing problems in Life Sciences and Medicine [4-6] while advancing instrumentation beyond classical limits [7].

References:

[1] Zh. Meng, et al, “Seeing cells in a new light: a renaissance of Brillouin spectroscopy,” Adv. Opt. Photon. 8(2), 300-327 (2016); 
[2] Z. N. Coker, et al, “Brillouin microscopy monitors rapid responses in subcellular compartments,” PhotoniX 5(1), 9 (2024); 
[3] C. W. Ballmann, et all, “Impulsive Brillouin microscopy,” Optica 4(1), 124-128 (2017); 
[4] Zh. Meng, et al, “Assessment of local heterogeneity in mechanical properties of a bulk hydrogel network,” ACS Nano 11(8), 7690–7696 (2017); 
[5] M. Troyanova-Wood, et al, “Differentiating melanoma and healthy tissues based on elasticity-specific Brillouin microspectroscopy,” Biomed. Opt. Express 10(4), 1774-1781 (2019); 
[6] D. Akilbekova, et al, “Brillouin spectroscopy and radiography for assessment of viscoelastic and regenerative properties of mammalian bones,” J. Biomed. Opt. 23(9), 097004 (2018); and 
[7] T Li, et al, “Quantum-enhanced stimulated Brillouin scattering spectroscopy and imaging,” Optica 9(8), 959-964 (2022).

BIOGRAPHY

Prof. Vladislav Yakovlev is a University Professor at Texas A&M University. His research interest is in the fields of biophotonics and biomedical imaging, with a focus of the development of new techniques for biomedical diagnostics and imaging, including Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and optical microscopy. Prof. Yakovlev is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the International Society for Optics and Photonics. He has received several prestigious awards including the SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award in High-Speed Optics and the Willis Lamb Medal, for his seminal contributions to the fields of optics and biophotonics.