Biomedical research is a fundamental pillar for mankind wellness. Knowledge of the human body and its functioning has allowed us not only to live longer, but also to live better. This research mainly depends on imaging techniques to study living specimens. Nowadays scientists can see, for example, how animal’s organs grow or to spot the development of tumors. However, current technology is limited when trying to study processes inside living organisms. While high-energy systems (X-ray, Computed Tomography) are able to peek at big depths, they use harmful ionizing radiation and have very coarse resolution (millimeter). During the last decades, the refinement of optical techniques has provided new tools to study biological processes with non-ionizing radiation and submicron spatial resolution, able to resolve the details of cells. However, these techniques only work well on thin and quasi transparent samples but fail to provide good results at big depths on in vivo tissue samples due to light scattering

Specifically, this proposal will deploy new instrumentation to increase the penetration depth of optical imaging techniques through scattering media. In particular, we will develop new diffuse optical imaging methods by smart beam delivery and optical detection. We will use microstructured light patterns projected at speeds of tens of kilohertz, methods to detect very weak variations of a light signal even in the presence of noise, and measurement techniques that discriminate ballistic light radiation and characterize the diffuse light using integrating spheres and tomographic detection systems. All of the above aspects make single-pixel imaging (SPI) a promising technology for biomedical imaging. Additionally, by use of a dual-comb laser source, we will move the applications of SPI to the implantation of a real-time LIDAR camera to accurate multidimensional mapping of the environment.