Anand Kumar, PhD: Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging: Applications in Preclinical Research, Clinical Diagnosis and Surgical Guidance

Anand Kumar, PhD

Assistant Professor of Radiology
Department of Radiology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School

Abstract

My talk will focus on our efforts towards applying fluorescence lifetime imaging in preclinical to clinical settings. I will discuss challenges facing the measurement of fluorescence lifetimes in thick biological tissue, and the tools we have developed to address these challenges. Applications of whole body fluorescence lifetime tomography will be discussed along with preclinical applications for cardiac imaging, cancer and neuropathology. I will also present our recent translational applications of fluorescence lifetime imaging for tumor contrast enhancement and intraoperative image guidance.

Short Bio

Anand is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He received his MSc from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India and PhD from Northeastern University, Boston, both in Physics. Following his doctoral work on ultrafast laser spectroscopy, he worked in Sycamore Networks as a Senior Optical Engineer for 2 years, where he designed commercial fiber optic networks. Subsequently, he moved to the Athinoula A. Martinos center in 2002 as a post-doctoral fellow and joined the faculty of the center as an Instructor in 2007 and Assistant Professor in 2012. His current research focus is on preclinical and clinical applications of optical molecular imaging, with particular emphasis on time domain and fluorescence lifetime imaging techniques.