Ultrafast Desorption by Impulsive Vibrational Excitation (DIVE): Applications in Laser Surgery, Mass Spectrometry and Towards Ultimate Limits in Biodiagnosis

Ren, Ling

Report/Dissertation / PhD Thesis

PUBDB-2015-02552

Ultrafast Desorption by Impulsive Vibrational Excitation (DIVE): Applications in Laser Surgery, Mass Spectrometry and Towards Ultimate Limits in Biodiagnosis

Ren, L. (Corresponding author)>Extern*

2015
Verlag Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron

Verlag Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY-THESIS 109 pp. (2015) [10.3204/DESY-THESIS-2015-023] = Universität Hamburg, Diss., 2015

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.3204/DESY-THESIS-2015-023

Report No.: DESY-THESIS-2015-023

Abstract: The prospects for minimally invasive surgery, spatial imaging with mass spectrometry and rapid high throughput biodiagnosis require new means of tissue incision and biomolecule extraction with conserved molecular structure. Towards this aim, a laser ablation process is utilized in this dissertation, which is capable of performing precise tissue incision with minimal collateral damage and extracting intact biological entities with conserved biological functions. The method is based on the recently developed Picosecond Infrared Laser (PIRL) designed to excite selectively the water vibrational modes under the condition of ultrafast Desorption by Impulsive Vibrational Excitation (DIVE). The basic concept is that the selectively excited water molecules act as propellant to ablate whole biological complexes into the plume, faster than any thermal deleterious effect or fragmentation that would mask molecular identities.The PIRL ablation under DIVE condition is applied for the first time to six types of ocular tissues, rendering precise and minimally invasive incisions in a well-controlled and reproducible way. An eminent demonstration is the contact-free and applanation-free corneal trephination with the PIRL. Mass spectrometry and other analytical techniques show that great abundance of proteins with various molecular weights are extracted from the tissue by the PIRL ablation, and that fragmentation or other chemical alternation does not occur to the proteins in the ablation plume. With various microscope imaging and biochemical analysis methods, nano-scale single protein molecules, viruses and cells in the ablation plume are found to be morphologically and functionally identical to their corresponding controls. The PIRL ablation provides a new means to push the frontiers of laser surgery in ophthalmology and can be applied to resolve chemical activities in situ and in vivo. The most important finding is the conserved nature of the extracted biological entities, rendering compositional reconstruction possible at the spatial limit of the laser focus, which has conspicuous potential in advancing rapid high throughput biodiagnosis.

Note: Universität Hamburg, Diss., 2015

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