Comparative study of small size tumors using a home made confocal laser scanning system and spectroscopic techniques / Abeer Saied Mohamed Naguib ; Supervised Yehia A. Badr , Abo Elela Hassanin

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences - Department of Laser Science and Interaction

Biomedical optics is a fast growing field of research. The development of a technique that is less invasive and provides real time and quantitative information about tissue biochemistry is of great importance for cancer diagnosis. Microscopy enables the scientist to see and elucidate special features and capabilities that allow different cell types to thrive in different environments and to perform different functions. One of the greatest advances in light microscopy within the past two decades is the development of confocal laser scanning microscope system (CLSMS ) which is a relatively new light microscopical imaging technique, and is considered a very successful tool that has greatly impacted biological research and became a valuable tool in many fields of study, due to its superior axial and lateral resolution over wide-field imaging. However, commercially available confocal systems are too expensive for most individual educators. In state-of-the-art biological laboratories with a confocal system, the instrument is usually operated by a technician or is so heavily utilized by researchers that it is impossible to allow students to modify it or use it as a teaching tool. The work presented in this thesis is intended to serve as a primer for basic confocal microscopy theory as well as a description of a low-cost method of design and construction of a home-made confocal laser scanning microscopy system. We have provided a simple and affordable method for building a confocal scanning laser microscopy system on a modest budget with decent lateral resolution and 2D dissection capability comparable to that of commercial systems. The system can be an excellent tool for giving students hands-on experience in building a confocal system, which can give them a deeper understanding of optics, electronics, microscopy, and system engineering. This work also uses commercial parts and open source software to reduce the budget in areas where laser scanning,optical parts, data collection, or image processing is involvedwerful analytical characterization

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