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DTSTAMP:20230913T140030Z
SUMMARY:MIC-Tea Time: Optical assessment of tissue and biofluid mechanics
DTSTART:20231213T160000
DTEND:20231213T180000
DESCRIPTION:MIC-Node: MAOI\n Speaker: Dr. Kareem Elsayad\n\nThe ability of 
 of tissue and biofluids to maintain and modulate mechanical properties (su
 ch as the elasticity and viscosity) is essential for physiological functio
 n\, with the majority of diseases and their onset associated with changes 
 therein. Measuring these in a rapid\, minimally-invasive and affordable ma
 nner is thus of much interest both for potential prognostic/diagnostic app
 lications as well as for better understanding the mechanistic origins of d
 iseases\, developing therapies and assessing their efficacy. One approach 
 for measuring mechanical properties involves the analysis of spectral sign
 atures in the scattered light from a probing laser\, which in addition to 
 information on the elastic and viscous properties can also be used to yiel
 d information on structural properties\, hydration\, and the abundance of 
 solid constituents. We have shown this may be useful for applications as d
 iverse as assessing the severity of COVID-19 infection and degenerative mu
 scle diseases. Making use of various optical tricks which allow us to work
  with low sample laser exposure\, we have developed high-throughput instru
 ments and compact hand-held probes that pave the way towards direct applic
 ation in the clinic. We have benchmarked these against current contact-bas
 ed means of assessing mechanical properties noting the at times distinct a
 nd unique information they can obtain. We are also currently in the proces
 s of creating a full body human anatomical mechanical atlas obtained from 
 such optical measurements\, which will catalogue and provide a reference f
 or physiological and pathological values of all tissue and biofluids\, and
  provide an important stepping stone towards standardization and expanding
  applications for prognostics/diagnostics.\n\n The talk will discuss:\n\n 
 The importance of mechanical properties of tissue and biofluids and their 
 relation to disease Existing technologies & emerging light scattering appr
 oaches for assessing mechanical properties of biomedically relevant matter
  Results from several studies Challenges & limitations\, the importance of
  standardization\, and future outlook\n\nBiosketch:\n Kareem Elsayad runs 
 the Laboratory for High-resolution optical Microspectroscopy Applications 
 at the Division of Anatomy/Center for Cell Biology and Anatomy\, where the
 y develop and apply novel optical micro-spectroscopy techniques for assess
 ing the physical properties of biomedical and biological relevant matter. 
 They work with diverse samples including those from body donors and patien
 t biopsies\, and often closely with clinicians to identify promising trans
 lational applications. Dr. Elsayad is a physicist by training having recei
 ved his Masters in Physics in the UK and PhD in the USA (both in condensed
  matter physics). He subsequently worked in optics as a postdoc\, and subs
 equently headed the Advanced Microscopy Facility\, both at the Vienna Bioc
 enter. Here together with his team he explored new optical microscopy and 
 spectroscopy approaches for life-science research\, before realizing that 
 some of the techniques may have medical applications and relocating to the
  Medical University. His interests are centered on developing and applying
  optical techniques for understanding the physical properties of biologica
 l systems\, and looking into how these can be translated for medical appli
 cations. He is the recipient of numerous national and international grants
  that supported his research in this direction\, serves on various scienti
 fic boards and as president of the recently established International BioB
 rillouin Society (which supports research into one particular light-scatte
 ring technique that can be used for extracting mechanical information in b
 iological tissue).
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