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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#C8102E">Multimodal Imaging Combining Optical Coherence Tomography and Brillouin Microscopy to Study Neural Tube Biomechanics
</span></b></span><span style="font-size:18.0pt; color:#C8102E"> </span> </p>
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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:black">Yogeshwari Sanjayrao Ambekar
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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:black">November 28, 2022; 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM (CST)</span></span> </p>
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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:black">Location: 280-Smith Wensveen Conference Room, Health & Biomedical Sciences Building 1</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span> </p>
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Click here to join the meeting</a> (Meeting ID: 222 200 209 015 Passcode: J2SUcq) </span></span> </p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span> </p>
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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:black">Committee Chair:</span></b></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:black"> <span class="x_contentpasted0">
Kirill V. Larin, Ph.D.</span> </span> </p>
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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:black">Committee Members:</span></b></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:black"><br>
<span class="x_contentpasted0">Salavat R. Aglyamov, Ph.D. | Richard H. Finnell, Ph.D. | Chandra Mohan, Ph.D. | Giuliano Scarcelli, Ph.D. | Yingchun Zhang, Ph.D.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> </span> </p>
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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#C8102E">Abstract</span></b></span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#C8102E"> </span> </p>
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<span class="x_contentpasted0"><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Neural tube defects (NTDs) are common human structural birth defects, affecting more than 300,000 births every year worldwide. The neural tube develops into the adult
brain and spinal cord, and NTDs arise when a failure of neural tube closure (NTC) occurs. Neural tube formation and closure are comprised of various complex processes that are crucial for embryonic development. Processes such as cell alignment and tissue reshaping
are governed by tissue biomechanics and forces. Thus, during NTC, structural and biomechanical properties of the cells and tissues play an important role. Moreover, these processes can be easily disrupted with significant consequences. When the neural tube
fails to complete closure during neurulation, it results in structural and functional abnormalities of the developed central nervous system, such as spina bifida and anencephaly. The biophysics of NTC, namely the interplay between tissue forces and stiffness
remains poorly understood mostly because of sub-optimal measurement techniques. Brillouin microscopy is an all-optical and completely noninvasive technique capable of mapping tissue stiffness and is capable of sub-micrometer scale resolution without any contact
with the sample. Although Brillouin microscopy can map the biomechanical properties of tissues, it cannot provide any structural details, which limits its use for imaging dynamic processes, such as NTC. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a well-established,
all-optical, noninvasive imaging technique and can perform live 3D structural imaging of mouse embryos with micrometer-scale resolution. This dissertation focuses on the development of a novel multimodal optical imaging system combining OCT with Brillouin
microscopy in one co-aligned instrument to study murine neural tube biomechanics. First, the initial development and validation of the Brillouin imaging system are demonstrated. The results are validated with the gold standard uniaxial mechanical testing and
optical coherence elastography. Second, the development of an integrated OCT and Brillouin microscopy in one co-aligned instrument is discussed. The application of multimodal imaging is demonstrated by simultaneous structural and biomechanical imaging of mouse
embryo neural tube at gestation days (GD) 8.5, 9.5, and 10.5. Next, the multimodal system is utilized to map the differences in neural tube stiffness of mouse models of NTDs. Mthfd1l and Fuz knockout mouse embryos are imaged at GD 9.5 and 10.5 and genotyped
to assess the link between genetic deficiencies and subsequent structural and biomechanical outcomes. </span></span> </p>
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