The CUA Biomedical Optics Laboratory

The Biomedical Optics Laboratory is in the Pangborn Building in the School of Engineering of CUA in North East Washington DC. The research of our laboratory focuses on light-tissue interaction.

The Biomedical Optics research group. From the left, Marjan Nabili, Ali Basiri, Emre Genca, Jessica Ramella-Roman, Afshin Nabili, Paul Lemaillet, Allison Pfeffer

We use light in a variety of diagnostic applications and in particular:

Oximetry in the human retina

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes mellitus affecting 80% of patients. We are developing tools to measure the oxygenation in the retina as a way to assess the onset of DR.

This work is funded by NIH/NEI and The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.

ARVO2009

Early detection of Autonomic Dysreflexia in patients with T6 injury level or above

Autonomic Dysreflexia (AD) is a serious condition affecting approximately 80 to 90% of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) above the Thoracic Vertebrae 6 (T6). It is caused by a noxious stimulus below the injury level such as a full bladder or ingrown toenail, and has a variety of symptoms; some of these symptoms are as moderate as chills and sweating, others are severe as high blood pressure and even stroke. We are developing a fiber optic based sensor to measure the onset of AD and its effect on peripheral limbs. More information about this research can be found here.

This work is funded by The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

Polarimetric imaging of skin cancer borders

True borders of certain skin cancers are hard to detect by the human eye. For this reason we are developing techniques such as polarized light imaging that enhance skin cancer contrast facilitating the doctor assessment before Mohs surgery procedures. We are also studying the skin micro-roughness, in order to improve tissue imaging techniques and as a way to measure skin texture. More information on this topic can be found here.

Polarized Light MonteCarlo programs

We have developed three different programs that model polarized light transfer into scattering media. We use these programs to better understand how polarized light travels through skin and to improve our experimental techniques. All programs are available for download on this page.