Optimisation of wavelength modulated Raman spectroscopy: towards high throughput cell screening

Area of Science:

• Biomedicine
• Spectroscopy
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Raman spectroscopy is crucial for distinguishing normal from cancerous cells.
• High background signals in Raman spectra reduce discrimination efficiency.
• Wavelength Modulated Raman Spectroscopy (WMRS) offers potential for background suppression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically optimize WMRS parameters for reduced acquisition time.
• To enhance throughput for applications like cell screening.
• To improve the efficiency of distinguishing between normal and cancerous cells.

Main Methods:

• Optimized modulation amplitude, time constant, and acquisition time for WMRS.
• Investigated the impact of sampling rate on Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).
• Applied optimized WMRS for binary classification of human urothelial and bladder cancer cells.

Main Results:

• Optimized WMRS parameters significantly reduced background noise.
• Acquisition time for cell classification was decreased to 6 seconds.
• Sampling rate did not affect SNR when three or more wavelengths were sampled.

Conclusions:

• Optimized WMRS parameters enable faster and more efficient cell discrimination.
• Reduced acquisition times facilitate higher throughput in cell-based diagnostics.
• WMRS is a promising technique for rapid screening of cancerous cells.