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<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><img alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering" id="x_imageSelected0" width="600" height="174" style="width: 600px; height: 174px; margin: 0px;" src="https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/thesis1.png"></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 28px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(200, 16, 46);">PHOTOTHERMAL MID-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPIC<br>
IMAGING AND ITS BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Chalapathi C Gajjela</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">December 7, 2023; 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (CST)<br>
Location: ECE Conference Room</span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Committee Chair:</b></span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Rohith K Reddy, Ph.D.</span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Committee Members:</b></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">David Mayerich</span><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">,
Ph.D. | Saurabh Prasad, Ph.D. | Chandra Mohan, Ph.D. | Oxana Klementieva, Ph.D.</span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><b>Abstract</b></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 22px; margin: 15px 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The current standard disease diagnosis and prognosis method primarily utilizes
histopathology, but conventional histological methods can be non-quantitative, subjective, and limited to specific biomarkers. However, when combined with modern histology, spectroscopic imaging may provide more precise measurements by overcoming variations
in sample preparation and pathological expertise. Mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopic imaging has been widely used in various applications, including cancer grading. However, one of the main limitations of MIRSI is its low spatial resolution due to long mid-infrared
wavelengths. To overcome this limitation, we explored a new imaging technique of optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) imaging based on vibrational excitation with mid-infrared light and probing the absorption with visible light through the thermal lensing
effect. We demonstrated that this technique significantly improves the resolution by an order of magnitude relative to FT-IR imaging. We used this new imaging technique to study ovarian and cervical cancer tissueand compared it to conventional MIRSI using
FT-IR microspectroscopy. This dissertation aims to utilize the improved resolution of O-PTIR imaging to study the biomedical applications in two projects, firstly the classification of cells in ovarian and cervical cancer biopsies, which could potentially
improve usability in a clinical environment for early diagnosis, and secondly, determining different biomarkers for distinguishing between healthy kidneys and kidneys with lupus nephritis. The third project has been proposed to improve the data collection
speed of the O-PTIR system by 10-12 times using sparse data reconstruction and image sharpening via curvelets.</span></p>
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<td style="width: 602px; height: 88px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><img alt="Engineered For What's Next" width="600" height="82" style="width: 600px; height: 82px; margin: 0px;" src="https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/dissertation2.png"></span></td>
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