Title: "Clinical Optical Imaging of Bacterial Biofilms in Humans and their Implications for Infectious Disease."
Speaker: Stephen Boppart, Grainger Distinguished Chair of Engineering, Director, GSK Center for Optical Molecular Imaging, Interim Director, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
Biofilms are comprised of communities of microorganisms encapsulated in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances that serves to isolate and protect the microorganisms from harmful environmental factors and even antibiotics. It is believed that most all chronic bacterial infections in humans involve biofilms, and understanding biofilm growth dynamics, persistence, and responses to treatment is essential to effectively manage infectious diseases in humans. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can address the needs for imaging biofilms in humans to better understand the role that they play in infectious disease. OCT can also be coupled with Raman spectroscopy for label-free bacterial speciation, and nonlinear optical techniques for metabolic and functional characterization. Together, there is unique potential for early detection, characterization, and longitudinal tracking of biofilms and the human microbiome, potentially enabling more strategic antibiotic treatment regimens and more effective clinical management of infectious bacterial diseases.
