Prof. Richard Levenson

Richard Levenson, MD, FCAP, is Professor and Vice Chair for Strategic Technologies, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UC Davis, where he develops novel imaging technologies for pathology.

Prof. Levenson received his MD at University of Michigan and pathology training at Washington University, becoming Board-certified in Anatomic Pathology. A faculty position at Duke was followed by appointment at Carnegie Mellon University. He subsequently joined Cambridge Research & Instrumentation (now part of PerkinElmer), becoming VP of Research, before returning to academia.

Prof. Levenson has helped develop multispectral microscopy systems and software for molecular pathology and diagnostics, multispectral and three-dimensional small-animal imaging systems, optical dynamic contrast techniques, orientation-independent birefringence microscopy, and multiplexed ion-beam imaging. He serves on multiple review panels, is section editor for Archives of Pathology and on the editorial board of Laboratory Investigation. Regrettably, he also successfully taught pigeons histopathology and radiology. He is co-founder and interim CEO of MUSE Microscopy, Inc.

Title: MUSE for slide-free, real-time histology—it’s cooler than frozens

Abstract:

Digital imaging of tissue slides is part of the future of anatomic pathology. However, as currently implemented, while facilitating logistics and enabling advanced analytical tools, it still requires the preparation of glass slides prior to scanning. An alternative strategy that bypasses conventional histological processing and its associated delays and expense would be useful, and a number of technologies for rapid, ex-vivo, slide-free microscopy are in research-and-development phase and a few have already been deployed as research-use-only commercial instruments. These contenders to replace FFPE-based histology appear promising for such uses as real-time surgical guidance, margin assessment, rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE), and potentially even for final tissue diagnosis, while accelerating care and decreasing costs. 

This talk will briefly discuss a few of these methods, including multiphoton and confocal microscopy, light-sheet microscopy, optical coherence tomography and structured illumination, and will focus on microscopy with UV surface excitation (MUSE), a novel approach that demonstrates a favorable combination of speed, simplicity, robustness, and technical quality.

Major developments in pathology raise many questions. Be part of the discussion on the way forward.

%d bloggers like this: