infocus #14 June 2009 Paving a New Path

Multispectral Imaging in Pathology

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.44

The field of pathology began in its modern form as autopsy-based studies about a century and a half ago. Starting with the correlation between clinical medicine and
the structural underpinnings of disease, first at the macroscopic level and, later, as techniques were developed to fix, section and stain tissue for microscopic evaluation, at the level of the cell and organelle.1

This task continues in the present day and has expanded to include analysis at the molecular level; the pathologist is called upon not only for a correct clinical diagnosis as before, but often for prognostic or even theragnostic information as well. In addition, in the field of translational research, the pathologist can be asked to validate other forms of imaging and detection, some of which are molecularly based, and to play a role in guiding drug development through the various stages of clinical trials.

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Authors

James R. Mansfield

Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, USA

James R. Mansfield is a spectroscopist with over 15 years of experience in in-vivo spectroscopy, spectroscopic imaging and applied data analysis, directed towards finding of novel optical methods for the diagnosis of medical conditions. He is currently the Director of Multispectral Imaging Systems at Cambridge Research & Instrumentation where he is responsible for CRi’s multispectral imaging systems (Nuance™ and Maestro™), which are being used in a wide range of fluorescence and brightfield microscopy and small animal in vivo molecular imaging applications. Before CRi, he worked at the National Research Council of Canada as a research scientist and at several small companies developing non-invasive spectroscopic methodologies. His research has included projects ranging from the objective classification of skin cancer spectra using mid-infrared spectral imaging, to developing methods for the non-invasive determination of the severity of rheumatoid arthritis, to the development of the first of several spectral imaging systems able to map out skin oxygenation levels. He holds a number of patents in these fields and 41 publications.

Richard Levenson

Cambridge Research and Instrumentation, USA

Richard Levenson MD, FCAP, received his undergraduate degree in History and Literature at Harvard College, his medical degree at the University of Michigan and his pathology training at Washington University, St. Louis. Following a research fellowship at the University of Rochester, he accepted a faculty position in the pathology department at Duke University. He then moved to Carnegie Mellon University where he began to develop applications in biology and medicine for multispectral imaging. Since 1999 he has been with Cambridge Research and Instrumentation, where he now holds a position as Vice President. He is currently Principal Investigator on NIH-funded grants for the development of automated, multiplexed pathology instrumentation, 3-dimensional multispectral smallanimal imaging systems, dynamic contrast enhancement, and high-speed birefringence optical microscopy, and holds a number of patents in these areas.