Smart Bio-Imaging

Since the first application of the microscopy by Robert Hooke (Micrographia, published in 1665), the biological and medical sciences have been entirely dependent upon this technology and all its subsequent developments for discovery and health/wealth applications. The desire to observe living cells and their processes is a continual driver for further technological enhancements of current microscopes as scientists seek to observe and understand the molecular processes and their dynamics in living organisms. This project has two major goals - both of which seek to enhance the performanc of microscopes 1. To produce a 'smart camera' which can track the position of a multitude of rapidly moving particles 2. To produce a 'smart camera' which can track the position of very low contrast objects which will reduce the need for fluorescent labelling of cells which can severely damage them. The work will be based on technology which has been developed for astronomical adaptive optics. Here it is critical to to process data about the atmosphere in real time and feed it back to a deformable mirror in order to correct for distortions caused by the passage of light through the atmosphere. atmosphere.