Head-mount Portable Multimodal Optical Brain Imaging Device for Un-Anesthetized Rats

The proposed project is aimed at developing a portable optical device to image blood flow velocity and oxygenation in a rat brain. The motivation behind this project is the development of minimally invasive method for long-term neurological studies in un-anesthetized animals, which should provide a better understanding of progression and treatment efficacy of various neurological disorders. The novelty of this proposal is the development of a miniature high-resolution optical imaging system to enable monitoring brain activity that is not compromised by the effect of anesthesia or physical fixation. The proposed timeframe for the project is 24 months, and will span the following areas: initial prototype design and characterization, development of a chronic skull window, biological test on anesthetized rats and comparison against state-of-the-art table-top setup, and biological test on un-anesthetized freely moving animals. Our clinical partners in Toronto Western Hospital will gain the means and methods for conducting long-term neurological brain imaging studies in un-anesthetized animals, while our industrial partners, QImaging and TeledyneDALSA, will get the opportunity to expand their footprint in the bio-imaging market and further improve their product specifically to target the bio-optics niche.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Ofer Levi

Student:

Raanan Gad, Ilya Sigal, Dene Ringuette

Partner:

Toronto Western Hospital

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto