LIFEGATE · Holographic super-resolution micro-endoscopy for in-vivo applications

Complexity of living matter currently poses the most significant barrier to modern in-vivo microscopy. Fuelled by various branches of life sciences, the race is now to increase the penetration depth of super-resolution imaging inside living organisms. Additionally, no high-resolution in-vivo imaging technique has ever been introduced into medical, particularly surgical practice. This proposal sets out to develop new, ultra-thin endoscopic devices exceeding by orders of magnitude the performance of the current state of the art, thus paving the way for acquiring high-quality images from unprecedented depths of the most delicate tissues of living organisms. A team of transdisciplinary experts will push the fundamental and technological limits of the enabling principle - holographic control of light propagation in multimode fibres. Through advanced analytical and numerical modelling and major advancement of experimental methods, the project will develop a powerful platform for fast and efficient recovery of randomised imagery, retrieved from both rigid and flexible single-fibre endoscopes. This ‘gate-through-life’ will enable the team to deploy several prominent light-based imaging methods, including super-resolution approaches, inside freely moving animal models and ultimately humans. Supported by partners with broad expertise in in-vivo imaging, I will apply this methodology in the first instance to Neuroscience. This will provide a new, minimally invasive window into fundamental processes behind sub-cellular-scale functional connectivity of neurons and onset of common disabling neuronal disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, I will introduce the first technological basis for keyhole clinical diagnostics, enabling intra-operative live histology and microsurgery. This new imaging capacity will be able to reach currently inaccessible regions of the human body, while providing images with sub-cellular resolution in-situ.