Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Overcoming the Multiple Scattering Limit in Optical Coherence Tomography

Award Number: R01EB031226
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/05/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2027

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Overcoming the Multiple Scattering Limit in Optical Coherence Tomography - Extending imaging depth is one of the grand challenges in optical microscopy, and many creative approaches are under development to mitigate the detrimental impact of the phenomenon of ‘optical scattering’ and enable deeper optical imaging in scattering media. Light propagating in dense tissue undergoes scattering events that scramble the phase of the propagating optical wavefront, and thus disrupts the constructive interference needed to focus/spatially localize the light to a diffraction-limited focal spot. Consequently, microscopic resolution is typically only available in the so-called ‘single-scattering’ (SS) or ‘ballistic’ light regime. OCT is one of the leading modalities in the field of deep microscopy, with maximum imaging depths typically 1–2 mm in scattering tissues. However, the incredible success of OCT has in some ways led to lower motivation than in other optical imaging fields to develop new approaches to address the problem of multiple scattering (MS). This is also a great opportunity – by building upon its already deep imaging capabilities, OCT has the opportunity to once again be at the forefront of research on pushing the imaging depth limits of optical microscopy. We propose an integrated approach that combines (1) long-wavelength OCT (1700 nm window, lower scattering coefficient supporting deeper imaging), (2) spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) in the conjugate imaging configuration to enhance the deep OCT signal by 2-3 orders of magnitude relative to the standard imaging configuration, (3) hardware adaptive optics (HAO) to correct tissue-induced aberrations and thereby boost the ballistic signal deep within tissue, and (4) aberration-diverse OCT (AD-OCT) for suppressing MS. Our recently-developed AD-OCT approach combines the advantages of a fiber-based OCT system with the principle behind the highly promising coherent accumulation of single scattering (CASS) method. The CASS method coherently accumulates SS from multiple illumination angles (plane wave illumination in full-field imaging geometry), whereas AD-OCT coherently accumulates SS arising from illuminating the sample with different known aberration states, and leveraging computational adaptive optics (CAO) to circumvent the resolution penalty normally associated with these aberrations. Aim 1 will develop a method to overcome the aberration-diversity saturation limit, implement high- speed GPU-based processing to address the Big Data problem in AD-OCT, and enable real-time feedback at the time of imaging. Aim 2 will quantitatively compare the performance of Gaussian-beam OCT (with and without HAO correction of tissue aberrations) vs. AD-OCT (with HAO correction of tissue aberrations). This will include measurements of the depth-dependent 3D point-spread-function, which will also fill an important knowledge gap in fundamental research on MS in OCT. Aim 3 will demonstrate AD-OCT beyond the current OCT multiple scattering limit in human skin and mouse brain in vivo (we will ‘unlock’ the 2-5 mm depth range). If successful, this proposal will demonstrate the deepest OCT imaging ever performed in human skin and mouse brain, and so is significant from the perspective of fundamental imaging science and the biomedical applications of OCT.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2026	2025	CORNELL UNIVERSITY	341 PINE TREE RD	ITHACA	NY	14850	TOMPKINS	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	001	4	1/29/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2026	2025	CORNELL UNIVERSITY	341 PINE TREE RD	ITHACA	NY	14850	TOMPKINS	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	4	1/23/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2026	2025	CORNELL UNIVERSITY	341 PINE TREE RD	ITHACA	NY	14850	TOMPKINS	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	002	4	3/23/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $358,537 )
2025	2025	CORNELL UNIVERSITY	341 PINE TREE RD	ITHACA	NY	14850	TOMPKINS	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	4	4/15/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$358,537
														Subtotal = $358,537

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $358,198 )
2024	2024	CORNELL UNIVERSITY	341 PINE TREE RD	ITHACA	NY	14850	TOMPKINS	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	3	7/1/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$358,198
														Subtotal = $358,198

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $346,414 )
2023	2023	CORNELL UNIVERSITY	341 PINE TREE RD	ITHACA	NY	14850	TOMPKINS	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	2	2/28/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$346,414
														Subtotal = $346,414

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $378,033 )
2022	2022	CORNELL UNIVERSITY	341 PINE TREE RD	ITHACA	NY	14850	TOMPKINS	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	1	6/3/2022	NEW	$378,033
														Subtotal = $378,033

Grand Total All Awards = $1,441,182

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Overcoming the Multiple Scattering Limit in Optical Coherence Tomography

Award Number: R01EB031226

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/05/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2027

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer