Jessica P. Houston

Optical Spectroscopy and Instrumentation &
National Flow Cytometry Resource

Jessica Perea Houston is a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico and received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from New Mexico State University in 2000. Jessica subsequently joined the Chemical Engineering Graduate Program at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas and completed her M.S. and Ph.D. studying frequency-domain photon migration. Her dissertation was entitled “Near Infrared Fluorescent Optical Lymphography for Cancer Diagnostics.” During graduate school Jessica also trained at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where she helped develop optical detection systems for whole-body, small animal imaging. After her Ph.D., Jessica spent 1.5 years as a Research Associate at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas in the Department of Radiology and Molecular Imaging Division. In collaboration with The Methodist Hospital, she participated in the first clinical trials that demonstrated the ability to non-invasively track lymph flow in breast cancer patients using a near-infrared fluorophore and intensified charge-coupled device camera system. In 2006 Jessica joined the NFCR as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow to study phase-sensitive flow cytometry and contribute to integration of this system with a full-spectral flow cytometer (G. Goddard et al). She is currently investigating surface-enhanced Raman scatter detection and autofluorescence lifetime of viable cells for application to phase-sensitive measurements.

Research Interests

• Single-exponential fluorescence lifetime measurement of viable cells, fluorophore-tagged cells, or free fluorophores in solution.
• Exploring phase-filtering of Raman signals from autofluorescence signals with nanoparticle-tagged samples in flow
• Developing an improved frequency-domain flow cytometry system for near-infrared measurements, digital phase mixing (with M. Naivar), and other advanced lifetime measurements.

Representative Publications

R. Sharma, J. Rasmussen, A. Joshi, E. Bonefas, J. P. Houston L. Sampath, K. Adams, D. Blanchard, R. Fisher, and E. M. Sevick, “Imaging of lymph flow in breast cancer patients after microdose administration of a near-infrared fluorophore, Radiology 2007, Submitted.

R. Sharma, W. Wang, J. Rasmussen, A. Joshi, J. P. Houston, K. Adams, A. Cameron, S. Ke, M. Mawad, and E. Sevick, “Quantitative imaging of lymph function,” American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulation 2007, 292(6):H3109-3118.

>J. P. Houston, S. Ke, W. Wang, C. Li, and E. M. Sevick-Muraca, “Quality analysis of in vivo NIR fluorescence and conventional gamma images acquired using a dual-labeled tumor-targeting probe,” Journal of Biomedical Optics 2005, 10(5):054010.

K. Hwang, J. P. Houston, J. Rasmussen, S. Ke, C. Li, and E. M. Sevick-Muraca, “Enhanced fluorescent optical imaging with improved excitation light rejection,” Molecular Imaging 2005, 4(3):194-204.

S. Kwon, S. Ke, J. P. Houston, W. Wang, Q. Wu, C. Li, and E. M. Sevick-Muraca, “Imaging dose-dependent pharmacokinetics of an RGD-fluorescent dye conjugate targeted to avb3 receptor expressed in Kaposi’s sarcoma,” Molecular Imaging 2005, 4:75-87 (cover of issue).

C. Li, W. Wang, Q. Wu, S. Ke, J. P. Houston, E. M. Sevick-Muraca, L. Dong,  D. Chow, C. Charnsangavej and J. P. Gelovani, "Dual optical and nuclear imaging in human melanoma xenografts using a single targeted imaging probe,” Nuclear Medicine and Biology 2006, 33(3):349-358.

J. P. Houston and E. M. Sevick-Muraca, “Sensitivity and depth penetration of CW versus FDPM NIR fluorescence contrast-enhanced imaging,” Photochemistry and Photobiology  2003, 77:420-430.

Reviews

E. M. Sevick-Muraca, A. Godavarty, J. P. Houston, A. B. Thompson, and R. Roy,  “Near-infrared imaging with fluorescent contrast agents," Chapter 14 in Fluorescence in Biomedicine Eds. B. Pogue and M. A. Mycek, Marcel Dekker, New York, New York, 83 pgs., 2003.

E. M. Sevick-Muraca, E. Kuwana, A. Godavarty, J. P. Houston, A. B. Thompson, and R. Roy, “Near-infrared fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy in random media and tissues,” Chapter 33 in Biomedical Photonics Handbook  Ed. J. Vo-Dinh, CRC Press., 66 pgs., 2003.

E.M. Sevick-Muraca, J. P. Houston, and M. Gurfinkel, “Fluorescence-enhanced, near-infrared diagnostic imaging with contrast agents,” Current Opinions in Chemical Biology 2002, 6: 642-650.