Physics (Internal)
Research Interests:
Minimally-Invasive Research-Oriented and Clinical Tools
The focus of our research is in the development of minimally-invasive research-oriented and clinical (both diagnostic and therapeutic) tools, based on optical technologies. Our applications span the breadth of the human body. We are currently running a number of projects one of these is our optical biopsy. With this, we are developing a tool to measure non-invasively the reflectance spectrum of biological tissues to diagnose diseases such as cancer. Another project is to create sensors to monitor the response of tumors to specific treatments. Another would be creating and using optical methods for noninvasive imaging of neural activation and brain function. Finally, we are developing a real-time imaging feedback system for tissue profiling and guidance during surgery.
Selected Publications:
Quantitative Biomedical Optics: theory, methods and applications, Irving J. Bigio and Sergio Fantini, Cambridge University Press (2016); ISBN: 978-0-521-87656-8
“Spectroscopic Sensing of Cancer and Cancer Chemotherapy, current status of translational research” Irving J Bigio and Stephen G. Bown, Cancer Biology and Therapy 3, 3, 259-267 (2004).
“Influence of the scattering phase function on light transport measurements in turbid media performed with small source-detector separations”, J.R. Mourant, J. Boyer, A. Hielscher and I.J. Bigio, Optics Letters 21, pp.546-548 (1996).
“Noninvasive measurement of chemotherapy drug concentrations in tissue: preliminary demonstrations of in vivo measurements,” Judith R. Mourant, Tamara M. Johnson, Gerrit Los and Irving J. Bigio, J. Physics in Medicine and Biology 44, pp. 1397-1417 (1999)
“Real-time imaging of action potentials in nerves using changes in birefringence,” Ali H. Badreddine, Tomas Jordan, Irving J. Bigio, Biomedical Optics Express 7(5), 1966-1973 (2016).
For a full list of publications, please see the attached CVEducation:
PhD 1974, University of Michigan
Honors/Awards:
- Fellow - Optical Society of America and American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery
- College of Fellows, American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering
- Los Alamos Inventor Awards -- 1994, 1996, 1999