Jon W. Hayenga

The Cell-CT 3-dimensional cell imaging technology platform enables the detection of lung cancer using the noninvasive LuCED sputum test

The war against cancer has yielded important advances in the early diagnosis and treatment of certain cancer types, but the poor detection rate and 5‐year survival rate for lung cancer has changed little over the past 40 years. Early detection through emerging lung cancer screening programs promise the most reliable means of improving mortality. Sputum cytology has been tried without success because sputum contains few malignant cells that are difficult for cytologists to detect. However, research has shown that sputum contains diagnostic malignant cells and could serve as a means of lung cancer detection if those cells could be detected and correctly characterized. Recently, the National Lung Screening Trial reported that screening using 3 consecutive low‐dose x‐ray computed tomography scans provides a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality compared with chest x‐ray. However, this reduction in mortality comes with an unacceptable false‐positive rate that increases patient risks and the overall cost of lung cancer screening. The LuCED test for detection of early lung cancer is reviewed in the current article. LuCED is based on patient sputum that is enriched for bronchial epithelial cells. The enriched sample is then processed on the Cell‐CT, which images cells in 3 dimensions with submicron resolution. Algorithms are applied to the 3‐dimensional cell images to extract morphometric features that drive a classifier to identify cells that have abnormal characteristics. The final status of these candidate abnormal cells is established by the pathologists manual review. LuCED promotes accurate cell classification that could enable the cost‐effective detection of lung cancer. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2015;123:512–523.

High resolution optical projection tomographic microscopy for 3D tissue imaging

Optical projection tomography (OPT) requires a large depth of field (DOF) of a low numerical aperture (NA) lens resulting in low resolution. However, DOF of a high NA objective can be extended by scanning the focal plane through the sample. This extended DOF image is called pseudoprojection, which is used by optical projection tomographic microscope (OPTM) for tomographic reconstruction. The advantage of OPTM is the acquisition of relatively high resolution and large depth of field concurrently. This method requires the working distance of the lens to be larger than the size of the sample, so proper lens should be chosen for samples of different sizes. In this paper, we imaged hematoxylin stained muntjac cells inside capillary tube with two different sizes. Two objective lenses with different NA are used for these two tubes. Experimental results show that resolution improves over 10 times in OPTM compared to conventional OPT, which make it possible for OPTM technique to resolve sub-cellular features for large samples. Therefore, OPTM can be used for 3D histological analysis of hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) stained biopsy specimen with sub-cellular resolution in the future.

Enabling Technologies for a Personal Flow Cytometer, Part II: Integrated Analysis Cartridges

A novel microcytometry system that monitors leukocyte populations to assess human pathogen exposure is being jointly developed by Micronics and Honeywell. The system contains both an instrument and a disposable card that contains complex microfluidic circuits for blood sample acquisition, reagent storage, erythrocyte lysis, cytometry, and waste storage. This talk discusses the subsystems that provide these functions and shows experimental results qualitatively describing hydrodynamic focusing and leukocyte populations.