Department of Neurobiology
Route: 0456 |
Tel: (409) 772-6514 |
grvargas@utmb.edu
Affiliations
UTMB Center for Cancers of the Head and Neck ,
UTMB Center for Addiction Research
Education and Training
PhD in Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, TX
MS in Mechanical Engineering, University Texas at Austin, TX
B.A. in Physics, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter MN
Research Interests
The primary focus of our laboratory is the investigation
and application of emerging optical techniques for
monitoring of disease processes or injury. The fundamental
basis of our work lies in the fact that optical signals
arising from tissue are altered during disease progression,
as the source of these signals originates in tissue
microstructure and biochemical makeup. Our interests lie in
optical signals that may be inherent to the tissue
(autofluorescence, scattering, absorption) or arise from
cellular/molecular contrast agents which give specificity to
the signal source.
Primary Optical Technologies incorporated into our research:
Multiphoton Microscopy (MPM, two-photon microscopy)
Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy (SHGM)
Confocal Reflectance Microscopy for Tissue Imaging
Confocal Microendoscopy
Fiber-based Multiphoton Microscopy
Fluorescence Lifetime Microscopy (FLIM)
Optical Coherence Tomography
Selected Publications
Chan, K.F., Choi, B., Vargas, G., Hammer, D.X., Sorg, B.,
Pfefer, J.T., Teichman, J.M.H., Welch, A.J., and Jansen, E.D. Free
electron laser ablation of urinary calculi: an experimental study. IEEE
Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 7(6):1022-1033, 2001.
Vargas, G., Chan, K.F., Thomsen, S.L. and Welch, A.J. The use
of osmotically active agents to alter the optical properties of tissue:
effects on the fluorescence signal detected through skin. Lasers in
Surgery and Medicine 29:213-220, 2001.
Telekov, S., Vargas, G., Nelson, J.S. and Milner, T.E.
Coherent thermal wave imaging of subsurface chromophores in biological
materials. Physics in Medicine & Biology 47:657-671, 2002.
Choi, B., Kim, J., Milner, T.E., Vargas, G., Aguilar, G.,
Rylander, C.G. and Nelson, J.S. Use of optical coherence tomography to
monitor biological tissue freezing during cryosurgery. Journal of
Biomedical Optics 9(2):282-6, 2004.
Vargas, G., Readinger, A., Dozier, S.S. and Welch, A.J.
Morphological changes associated with increased visualization of
subdermal blood vessels by tissue optical clearing – measured using
Doppler optical coherence tomography. Photochemistry & Photobiology
77(5):541-549, 2003.
Kotov, N.A., Liu, Y., Wang, S., Cumming, C., Eghtedari, M., Vargas, G.,
Motamedi, M., Nichols, J. and Cortiella, J. Inverted colloidal crystals
as three-dimensional cell scaffolds. Langmuir 20(19):7887-7892, 2004.
Sun, J., Shilagard, T., Bell, B., Motamedi, M. and Vargas, G. In vivo multimodal nonlinear optical imaging of mucosal tissue. Optics Express 12(11):2478-86, 2004.
Youn, J.I., Vargas, G., Wong, B.F. and Milner, T.E.
Depth-resolved phase retardation measurements for laser-assisted
non-ablative cartilage reshaping. Physics in Medicine & Biology
50:1937-1950, 2005.
Liu, Y., Wang, S., Krouse, J., Kotov, N.A., Eghtedari, M., Vargas, G.
and Motamedi, M. Rapid aqueous photo-polymerization route to polymer
and polymer-composite hydrogel 3D inverted colloidal crystal scaffolds.
J. Biomaterials Res. 83(1):1-9, 2007.
Gong, B.., Sun, J., Vargas, G., Xu, Y., Chang, Q., Srivastava,
D. and Boor, P.J. Nonlinear imaging study of extracellular matrix in
chemical-induced, developmental dissecting aortic aneurysm: evidence for
defective collagen type III. Birth Defects Research Part A: Clinical
and Molecular Teratology 82(1):16-24, 2008.
Link to PubMed Publications