Abstract
Optical imaging technologies enable us to obtain structural and biochemical information, allowing for high-resolution and precise observations of biological samples that were previously unobservable. Especially, with recent advancements in optical technologies, such as, lasers and optical fibers, novel optical imaging techniques have been developed and have found widespread use in the biological and medical fields. For instance, optical coherence tomography (OCT), an interferometric method for acquiring three-dimensional cross-sections of biological tissue, has successfully been translated into clinical diagnostics. It provides microscopic views of biological structures in fields such as ophthalmology and cardiology. Additionally, fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm), which measures nanosecond-scale fluorescence decay time, has also emerged as a label-free diagnostic modality leveraging endogenous autofluorescence within biological samples. The synergistic integration of OCT and FLIm offers a comprehensive perspective on pathological lesions, thereby positioning their combined application as a highly promising method in medical imaging. In this talk, I will discuss the technological evolution and combination of OCT and FLIm, their applications in diagnostic devices for cardiovascular disease, and advancements in image analysis and image quality improvement through machine learning.
Biography
Hongki Yoo is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea. Porfessor Yoo earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from KAIST. He has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and an instructor at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. From 2012 to 2019, Prof. Yoo led the Biomedical Optics and Photomedicine Lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Hanyang University. He joined KAIST in 2019 to establish and lead the Biomedical Optics and Optical Metrology (BOOM) Lab. His research topics include multimodal optical imaging, endoscopic imaging, optical coherence tomography, 3D metrology, diagnostics and therapeutics of cardiovascular disease, and machine learning in optical imaging. For more information on Professor Yoo’s research projects, please visit his lab’s website.