Jennifer Kehlet Barton

Jennifer Kehlet Barton

Director, BIO5 Institute
Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Engineering
Professor, Agricultural-Biosystems Engineering
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Professor, Medical Imaging
Professor, Optical Sciences
Professor, Cancer Biology - GIDP
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Member of the General Faculty
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 626-0314

Work Summary

I develop new optical imaging devices that can detect cancer at the earliest stage. Optics has the resolution and sensitivity to find these small, curable lesions, and we design the endoscope that provide access to organs inside the body. .

Research Interest

Jennifer Barton, Ph.D. is known for her development of miniature endoscopes that combine multiple optical imaging techniques, particularly optical coherence tomography and fluorescence spectroscopy. She evaluates the suitability of these endoscopic techniques for detecting early cancer development in patients and pre-clinical models. She has a particular interest in the early detection of ovarian cancer, the most deadly gynecological malignancy. Additionally, her research into light-tissue interaction and dynamic optical properties of blood laid the groundwork for a novel therapeutic laser to treat disorders of the skin’s blood vessels. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers in these research areas. She is currently Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Optical Sciences, Agriculture-Biosystems Engineering, and Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona. She has served as department head of Biomedical Engineering, Associate Vice President for Research, and is currently Director of the BIO5 Institute, a collaborative research institute dedicated to solving complex biology-based problems affecting humanity. She is a fellow of SPIE – the International Optics Society, and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Keywords: bioimaging, biomedical optics, biomedical engineering, bioengineering, cancer, endoscopes

Publications

Kostuk, R. K., Barton, J. K., Luo, Y., Castro, J. M., & Barbastathis, G. (2011). Volume Holographic Spectral-Spatial Imaging of Biological Tissue. TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH W. GOODMAN, 8122.
Barton, J. K., Amirsolaimani, B., Rice, P., Hatch, K., & Kieu, K. (2016). Three-photon imaging of ovarian cancer. PHOTONIC THERAPEUTICS AND DIAGNOSTICS XII, 9689.
Korde, V. R., Liebmann, E., & Barton, J. K. (2009). Design of a Handheld Optical Coherence Microscopy Endoscope. ENDOSCOPIC MICROSCOPY IV, 7172.
Howlett, I. D., Han, W., Rice, P., Barton, J. K., & Kostuk, R. K. (2017). Wavelength-coded volume holographic imaging endoscope for multidepth imaging. Journal of biomedical optics, 22(10), 1-4.

A wavelength-coded volume holographic imaging (WC-VHI) endoscope system capable of simultaneous multifocal imaging is presented. The system images light from two depths separated by 100  μm in a tissue sample by using axial chromatic dispersion of a gradient index probe in combination with two light-emitting diode sources and a multiplexed volume hologram to separate the images. This system is different from previous VHI systems in that it uses planar multiplexed gratings and does not require curved holographic gratings. This results in improved lateral imaging resolution from 228.1 to 322.5  lp/mm. This letter describes the design and fabrication of the WC-VHI endoscope and experimental images of hard and soft resolution targets and biological tissue samples to illustrate the performance properties.

Tate, T., Keenan, M., Swan, E., Black, J., Utzinger, U., & Barton, J. (2014). Optical design of an optical coherence tomography and multispectral fluorescence imaging endoscope to detect early stage ovarian cancer. INTERNATIONAL OPTICAL DESIGN CONFERENCE 2014, 9293.