[MOS] Dr. Kimani C. Toussaint, April 13, 2012

[Zina M Queen]

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Bioengineering Seminar
Developments in Quantitative Second-Harmonic Generation Microscopy

Dr. Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr.
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Friday, April 13th at 11 AM in Room 56-602 (BE)

Advances in nonlinear microscopy, e.g., multiphoton fluorescence microscopy and second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy, have permitted both noninvasive and high-resolution imaging of biological specimens. In recent years, there has been increasing effort to use these techniques to perform quantitative inspection of specimens under study. Research carried out at the laboratory for Photonics Research of Bio/nano Environments (PROBE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign involves developing quantitative SHG microscopy for assessment of fibrillar collagen-based tissues. This talk will focus on two particular techniques: Fourier transform-second-harmonic generation (FT-SHG) microscopy and polarization-second-harmonic generation (P-SHG) microscopy. Information pertaining to collagen fiber structural organization is obtained using FT-SHG, which combines SHG with spatial harmonic analysis, while PSHG carries information about molecular changes to collagen fibers by exploiting the intrinsic coherence in the SHG process to determine the polarization-dependent normalized tensor components of the 2nd-order scattering coefficient. Biomedical applications to tendon injury and breast cancer will be discussed, and a brief overview of the other projects in the PROBE lab pertaining to polarization vector fields and plasmonic nanoantennas will also be discussed.

Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, and an Affiliate Faculty in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Toussaint directs the laboratory for Photonics Research of Bio/nano Environments (PROBE Lab) at UIUC, an interdisciplinary research group which focuses on developing advanced optical techniques for both quantitatively imaging collagen-based biological structures, and investigating the optical properties of plasmonic nanostructures for light-driven control of matter and solar applications. His work on second-harmonic generation microscopy was featured in the Editor’s Choice segment of the December 2010 special issue of Science. Dr. Toussaint is a recipient of a 2010 NSF CAREER Award, and holds Senior Member positions in both the OSA and IEEE. He has previously been selected for both the National Academy of Science’s 18th Annual Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium, and the 8th Annual National Academies Keck Futures Initiative on Imaging Science. In addition, Dr. Toussaint has been on the UIUC List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students for the last 4 consecutive years in recognition of his teaching.


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