A Seminar by Dumont d’Urville NZ-France Science & Technology Catalyst Fund Programme:

Victoria University of Wellington and École Polytechnique

WHEN:  Wednesday, 18th December 2019

WHERE:  Computational Media Innovation Centre (CMIC), 40 Taranaki street, 3rd flour

TIME: 9am to 5.30pm..9:00 – 9:20 am

Morning Tea (CMIC) 9:20 – 10:00 am

Prof. Eccles 10:10 – 10:50 am  

Dr. Novikova 11:00 – 11:40 am

Prof. Yakovlev  12:00 – 1:00 pm Lunch (CMIC)

1:00 – 2:00 pm  Exec and Research Office meeting

3:00 – 4:00 pm  CMIC presentations and lab tours

4:00 – 5:30 pm  Free time.

Dr. Tatiana  Novikova, “Studies of Structured and Random Media with Mueller Polarimetry: from Metrology to Biomedicine” Abstract: Probing a sample with polarized light provides valuable information about its properties, which can be used in various applications. The basic advantages of optical polarimetric techniques consist in being relatively low-cost, fast and non-destructive, thus, allowing the measurements for in-situ applications. The Mueller matrix polarimeters based on liquid crystals and operating in either spectroscopic or imaging mode were developed and used in LPICM, Ecole Polytechnique (France) during the last two decades. Our theoretical and experimental studies prove that having access to the complete set of polarimetric data, namely, spectrally or angularly resolved Mueller matrices, is crucial for the accurate characterization of complex media (layered, patterned, scattering, and absorbing). In this talk I will present the results demonstrating the potential of Mueller polarimetry for cancer detection and metrology in microelectronics.

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Professor Mike Eccles, “Can optical properties of a tumour in the body be used clinically? – Investigations of the scattering of circular polarised light in cancer and normal tissues”  Abstract: Optical properties of tumours underpin clinical imaging (e.g. MRI, CT, PET, multiphotonic imaging) used to detect or diagnose tumours. However, these techniques require relatively large equipment and/or may not be easily adapted for “real-time” detection. For instance, in Moh’s skin cancer surgery, or surgical excision of primary melanoma, small amounts of remaining cancer tissue (such as might be missed in Moh’s surgery), lead to eventual re-growth of the tumour. During surgery it would be beneficial to have a cancer imaging device that could be used in “real-time” in the operating room to ensure complete tumour resection. In this regard, we hypothesized that circular polarised light could be used to identify tumour tissue versus normal tissue, and that this would have the potential to be used as a “real-time” system to identify tumour tissue. Using formalin fixed paraffin-embedded human tumour tissue to investigate scattering of circular polarised light, we detected differences associated with tumour tissue versus adjacent non-tumour tissue. In this talk, I will discuss this and other examples using polarimetry to analyse biological tissues, and whether scattering of circular polarised light could be used in real-time in the clinic to detect tumour tissue.

Professor Vladislav V. Yakovlev, “Seeing life in a new light” Abstract: The progress of biomedical sciences depends on the availability of advanced instrumentation and imaging tools capable of attaining the state of biological systems in vivo without using exogenous markers. Mechanical forces and local elasticity play a central role in understanding physical interactions in all living systems. We demonstrate a novel way to image microscopic viscoelastic properties of biological systems using Brillouin microspectroscopy. In my talk, I will discuss the ways how an old spectroscopic tool can be used for real time microscopic imaging and provide possible solutions to long standing problems in Life Sciences and Medicine.

Severtechniques will be presented and discussed, including hyper spectral/polarized imaging which are of a potential interest to us!

Please RSVP (for catering purposes): Siyun Thompson, CMIC, [email protected]

Host (seminar-related inquiries): Alex Doronin, ECS, [email protected]

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