Ministry+of+Health+and+Welfare
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Ultrathin but Fully Packaged High-Resolution Camera
- Biologically inspired ultrathin arrayed camera captures super-resolution images. -
The unique structures of biological vision systems in nature inspired scientists to design ultracompact imaging systems. A research group led by Professor Ki-Hun Jeong have made an ultracompact camera that captures high-contrast and high-resolution images. Fully packaged with micro-optical elements such as inverted micro-lenses, multilayered pinhole arrays, and gap spacers on the image sensor, the camera boasts a total track length of 740 μm and a field of view of 73°.
Inspired by the eye structures of the paper wasp species Xenos peckii, the research team completely suppressed optical noise between micro-lenses while reducing camera thickness. The camera has successfully demonstrated high-contrast clear array images acquired from tiny micro lenses. To further enhance the image quality of the captured image, the team combined the arrayed images into one image through super-resolution imaging.
An insect’s compound eye has superior visual characteristics, such as a wide viewing angle, high motion sensitivity, and a large depth of field while maintaining a small volume of visual structure with a small focal length. Among them, the eyes of Xenos peckii and an endoparasite found on paper wasps have hundreds of photoreceptors in a single lens unlike conventional compound eyes. In particular, the eye structures of an adult Xenos peckii exhibit hundreds of photoreceptors on an individual eyelet and offer engineering inspiration for ultrathin cameras or imaging applications because they have higher visual acuity than other compound eyes.
For instance, Xenos peckii’s eye-inspired cameras provide a 50 times higher spatial resolution than those based on arthropod eyes. In addition, the effective image resolution of the Xenos peckii’s eye can be further improved using the image overlaps between neighboring eyelets. This unique structure offers higher visual resolution than other insect eyes.
The team achieved high-contrast and super-resolution imaging through a novel arrayed design of micro-optical elements comprising multilayered aperture arrays and inverted micro-lens arrays directly stacked over an image sensor. This optical component was integrated with a complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensor.
This is first demonstration of super-resolution imaging which acquires a single integrated image with high contrast and high resolving power reconstructed from high-contrast array images. It is expected that this ultrathin arrayed camera can be applied for further developing mobile devices, advanced surveillance vehicles, and endoscopes.
Professor Jeong said, “This research has led to technological advances in imaging technology. We will continue to strive to make significant impacts on multidisciplinary research projects in the fields of microtechnology and nanotechnology, seeking inspiration from natural photonic structures.”
This work was featured in Light Science & Applications last month and was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) of Korea.
Image credit: Professor Ki-Hun Jeong, KAIST
Image usage restrictions: News organizations may use or redistribute this image, with proper attribution, as part of news coverage of this paper only.
Publication:
Kisoo Kim, Kyung-Won Jang, Jae-Kwan Ryu, and Ki-Hun Jeong. (2020) “Biologically inspired ultrathin arrayed camera for high-contrast and high-resolution imaging”. Light Science & Applications. Volume 9. Article 28. Available online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-020-0261-8
Profile:
Ki-Hun Jeong
Professor
kjeong@kaist.ac.kr
http://biophotonics.kaist.ac.kr/
Department of Bio and Brain Engineering
KAIST
Profile:
Kisoo Kim
Ph.D. Candidate
kisoo.kim1@kaist.ac.kr
http://biophotonics.kaist.ac.kr/
Department of Bio and Brain Engineering
KAIST
(END)
2020.03.23 View 15112 -
Cooperative Tumor Cell Membrane-Targeted Phototherapy
A KAIST research team led by Professor Ji-Ho Park in the Bio and Brain Engineering Department at KAIST developed a technology for the effective treatment of cancer by delivering synthetic receptors throughout tumor tissue. The study, led by Ph.D. candidate Heegon Kim, was published online in Nature Communications on June 19.
Cancer targeted therapy generally refers to therapy targeting specific molecules that are involved in the growth and generation of cancer. The targeted delivery of therapeutics using targeting agents such as antibodies or nanomaterials has improved the precision and safety of cancer therapy.
However, the paucity and heterogeneity of identified molecular targets within tumors have resulted in poor and uneven distribution of targeted agents, thus compromising treatment outcomes.
To solve this problem, the team constructed a cooperative targeting system in which synthetic and biological nanocomponents participate together in the tumor cell membrane-selective localization of synthetic receptors to amplify the subsequent targeting of therapeutics. Here, synthetic and biological nanocomponents refer to liposomes and extracellular vesicles, respectively.
The synthetic receptors are first delivered selectively to tumor cell membranes in the perivascular region using liposomes. By hitchhiking with extracellular vesicles secreted by the cells, the synthetic receptors are transferred to neighboring cells and further spread throughout the tumor tissues where the molecular targets are limited.
Hitchhiking extracellular vesicles for delivery of synthetic receptors was possible since extracellular vesicles, such as exosomes, mediate intercellular communications by transferring various biological components such as lipids, cytosolic proteins, and RNA through a membrane fusion process. They also play a supportive role in promoting tumor progression in that tumor-derived extracellular vesicles deliver oncogenic signals to normal host cells.
The team showed that this tumor cell membrane-targeted delivery of synthetic receptors led to a uniform distribution of synthetic receptors throughout a tumor and subsequently led to enhanced phototherapeutic efficacy of the targeted photosensitizer.
Professor Park said, “The cooperative tumor targeting system is expected to be applied in treating various diseases that are hard to target.”
The research was funded by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning, and the National R&D Program for Cancer Control funded by the Ministry for Health and Welfare.
(Ph.D. candidates Hee Gon Kim (left) and Chanhee Oh)
Figure 1. A schematic of a cooperative tumor targeting system via delivery of synthetic receptors.
Figure 2. A confocal microscopic image of a tumor section after cooperative targeting by synthetic receptor delivery. Green and magenta represent vessels and therapeutic agents inside a tumor respectively.
2017.07.07 View 9555 -
Mutations Unveiled that Predispose Lung Cancer Cells to Refractory Histologic Transformation
Cancer pedigree analysis reveals the mutations in RB1 and TP53 genes play a key role in treatment-resistant, cancer cell-type transformation during EGFR inhibitor therapy for lung cancers.
Research led by Korean medical scientists has discovered that a specific type of drug resistance mechanism to EGFR inhibitor therapy in lung cancer is predisposed by mutations in two canonical cancer-related genes: RB1 and TP53. Published in Journal of Clinical Oncology on May 12, the study also found those mutations can be detectable in patients' tumors at the point of clinical diagnosis. Therefore, it can be used as strong markers in clinic for predicting poor outcome for the targeted treatment for lung adenocarcinoma.
Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer, and about 15% of patients in Western countries and 50% of patients in Asian countries have mutations in the EGFR gene, which is critical for the development of lung cancer. Patients with lung adenocarcinoma harboring the EGFR mutation show favorable responses to EGFR inhibitors such as erlotinib (Tarceva) or gefitinib (Iressa), but ultimately relapse with drug-resistant tumors. Since the initial report in 2006, it has been known that in about 5~15% of patients, the lung adenocarcinoma cells undergo a mysterious transformation into a very different cancer cell type called “small cell lung cancer,” a much more aggressive lung cancer subtype, common in cigarette smokers.
To find out the genetic basis of this process, the researchers compared the genome sequences of multiple cancer tissues acquired during the treatment courses of patients whose tumors underwent small-cell transformation. They reconstructed the cancer cell pedigree by comparing mutations between cancer tissues, and identified that RB1 and TP53 genes are completely inactivated by mutations already in their lung adenocarcinoma tissues.
"We tried to compare the somatic mutational profile of pre-EGFR inhibitor treatment lung adenocarcinomas and post-treatment small cell carcinomas and to reconstruct the pedigrees of the cancer evolution in each patient. Strikingly, both copies of RB1 and TP53 genes were already inactivated at the stage of lung adenocarcinomas in all sequenced cases," said Dr. Jake June-Koo Lee, the first author from KAIST.
They further pursued the clinical implications of RB1 and TP53 inactivation by investigating 75 EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinoma tissues from patients who received EGFR inhibitor therapy, including patients with small-cell transformation. In this analysis, the lung adenocarcinomas with a complete inactivation of both RB1 and TP53 genes tended to have a 43-times greater risk of transformation into small cell lung cancer during their EGFR inhibitor treatment courses.
Dr. Young Seok Ju, the co-last author from KAIST, explained, "This study shows the power of entire genome analyses to better understand the mechanisms underlying mysterious phenomenon encountered in clinic. Upon accurate bioinformatics, we are finding cancer-specific somatic mutations from the whole-genomes of patients’ cancer cells. These mutations allow us to track the evolution of cancer cells throughout the extraordinary clinical course of a special set of lung cancers."
The complete inactivation of both RB1 and TP53 tumor suppressor genes is found in a minor (<10%) subset of lung adenocarcinoma. This study suggests that the clinical course against targeted therapy is endogenously different for the cancers in the subgroup, and specific drug-resistance mechanisms are predisposed by the two genetic mutations. Indeed, RB1 and TP53 double inactivation is a genetic hallmark of primary small cell lung cancer, observed in nearly all cases.
"We are actively investigating patient tumor tissues to develop optimal surveillance plans and treatment options for patients with lung adenocarcinomas more prone to small-cell transformation," said Dr. Tae Min Kim, the co-last author from Seoul National University Hospital.
The researchers are implementing their findings into lung cancer clinics by screening the RB1 and TP53 mutational status in lung adenocarcinoma patients receiving EGFR inhibitor treatment, and following their treatment courses to develop a treatment strategy for those patients.
This research (doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2016.71.9096) was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2013H1A2A1032691 to J.-K.L., NRF-2014R1A2A2A05003665 to Y.T.K.); Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (K-16-L03-C02-S02 to J.L.); and the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, which was funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (HI14C1234 to T.M.K., HI16C2387 to Y.S.J.)
Figure. Phylogeny analysis of serially-acquired tumors
A. Phylogeny trees of sequenced cases (LC1−LC4) are reconstructed from the WGS data. Conceptual illustrations are depicted with grey color. Circles indicate major clones of the tumors. The length of each branch is proportional to the number of mutations that occurred in the branch. Mutations of cancer-related genes in each branch are indicated with arrows. The time points of relevant treatments are summarized below the trees.
B. Mutations of RB1 and TP53 in two early LADCs (LC1b and LC4a) are visualized using Integrative Genomics Viewer (left panel). Allele-specific copy number analysis shows loss of heterozygosity of chromosomes 13 and 17 in both early LADCs and EGFR TKI-resistant SCLCs (right panel).
C. Clonal evolution of LC1 is described with clinical history and tumor volumes. The horizontal axis represents the time from the diagnosis (0), and the vertical axis indicates the volume of tumors calculated from the computed tomography images.
Abbreviations: LADC, lung adenocarcinoma; SCLC, small cell lung cancer
2017.06.07 View 8047