Dr. Chinmay D. Darne

My areas of expertise include:
• near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) optical imaging
• time-independent and dependent measurement techniques
• optical tomography
• spectroscopy
• instrumentation design, noise analysis, and validation
• preclinical studies and clinical translation

My current research involves building and validating instrumentation for near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) optical tomography. I have developed frequency-domain photon migration (FDPM) technique to gather time-of-flight information from fluorescent photons in a bid to improve the reconstruction accuracy of the tissue embedded targets. The FDPM-based optical circuitry integrated into a commercial preclinical Siemens CT scanner carries out 360° projections of the tissue under test. Using a docked Siemens PET scanner, an automated PET/CT/Optical workflow has been realized. This gantry-based system has demonstrated its capability in accurately detecting primary and metastatic tumors using dual-labeled targeted imaging agents.

I am also involved with on-going clinical studies that focus on real-time 2D imaging of lymphatics in humans and their associated diseases.