Jiawen Li - Ultrathin multimodal endoscopic probes

Preclinical studies and clinical diagnostics increasingly rely on techniques to visualise internal organs at high-resolution via endoscopes. Miniaturised endoscopic probes are necessary for imaging small luminal or delicate organs (e.g., small airways, blood vessels and bile ducts) without causing trauma to tissue. However, current fabrication methods limit the performance of these ultrathin endoscopic probes, resulting in 1) low resolution or depth of focus and/or 2) incapability to conduct multimodal measurements.

This talk will introduce our latest research to address the above two fundamental challenges, working towards widespread applications of endoscopic probes. To overcome the first challenge, we have utilised 3D micro-printing technology to fabricate freeform optics directly on an optical fibre to correct nonchromatic aberrations of an ultrathin endoscopic probe. I will use our recent work of the world’s smallest 3D-printed intravascular imaging device as an example. To allow multimodal studies of biological processes with high spatial heterogeneity in vivo (i.e., the second challenge), we have developed a suite of ultrathin fibre probes that allow measurements of the microstructural (imaging) and physical/chemical (sensing) information deep in living organisms. This advance enables image-guide sensing, and simultaneous co-localised measurements of complimentary information of complex biological process.