Presenter(s)

Ethan Selkirk

Comments

3:00-4:15, Kennedy Union Ballroom

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Description

Using affordable, readily available materials, we have developed multiple tissue- and blood-mimicking materials (known as "tissue phantoms"), for calibrating and testing optical spectroscopy and imaging technologies. By incorporating everyday products such as coffee, coffee creamer, paint pigments, food coloring, and gelatin, we create tissue phantoms that closely replicate the optical properties of biological tissues while remaining low-cost and easy to produce. Our goal is to minimize costs without compromising accuracy, and through collaborations with researchers at other institutions, we have successfully developed, measured, and assessed the reproducibility of different tissue phantoms. Our current focus is on replicating the absorption spectra of melanin and hemoglobin, as well as changes that occur in the scattering spectrum during the development of skin cancer. The accessibility and reproducibility of these tissue phantoms make them potentially valuable tools both for teaching tissue-optics principles to students and for validating the accuracy of oximetry and cancer detection technologies.

Publication Date

4-23-2025

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Robert H. Wilson

Primary Advisor's Department

Physics

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Scholarship; Diversity

Fabrication and validation of low-cost, biologically relevant, easy-to-prepare tissue-mimicking materials

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