Physics Colloquium: “Transient Absorption Spectroscopy & Imaging with Heme Proteins: Endogenous Contrast for Redox, Oxygenation, & More”

Jesse Wilson

Colorado State University, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Abstract: Heme proteins contain an iron-porphyrin group, which plays a central role in oxygen transport, electron transfer, and catalysis in a wide range of organisms. Their unique redox- and oxygen-sensitive optical absorption spectra form the basis for technologies like pulse-oximetry devices and provided critical clues that led to the discovery of the mitochondrial electron transport chain. This talk will focus on transient (picosecond and femtosecond timescale) optically-excited states of heme proteins, their spectral signatures, and use for nonlinear optical imaging of blood oxygenation, mitochondria, and potential for detection of mitochondrial disease. We will also discuss modeling heme transient absorption responses with a time-correlator approach and active suppression of laser intensity noise with adaptive digital signal processing.

All lectures are via Zoom: https://mines.zoom.us/j/98686472990?pwd=REFBbFBJZk9MbXhldGRzemNaczlTZz09

Bio: Jesse Wilson is a Boettcher Young Investigator, Rhoden Professor, and Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Colorado State University. Prior to joining CSU’s faculty, Jesse trained as a postdoc in Warren Warren’s lab at Duke University, working on in-vivo transient absorption microscopy of melanoma. He earned his PhD in Randy Bartels’ lab at Colorado State University, developing techniques in ultrafast pulse shaping and impulsive Raman spectroscopy.