Working at Brimrose: A Smart Career Choice

The author (left), together with Brimrose Director of R&D Sudhir Trivedi (second from left), Brimrose Founder and CEO Ron Rosemeier (in brown sweater) and Colonel Alan Samuels discuss a next big idea at Brimrose headquarters.

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I have worked at some great places in my lengthy career in optics and photonics, but none for as long as at the Brimrose Corporation of America.

What makes Brimrose such a special place to work?

To start with, the founder, Ron Rosemeier, who is still CEO, was greatly influenced by Prof. Robert Green at Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Green believed that if you gave the right people the right tools, you could accomplish anything. I go to work every day believing that an idea I have may not only change how Brimrose operates, but also how the world operates. The power to potentially make the world a better place is a great motivator!

Brimrose is set up to foster great ideas. Every idea is valued. Innovation is critical to the company’s success. It is a congenial atmosphere, where PhDs, techs, marketing people, scientists, engineers, software people, accountants, fulfillment people and executives fully interact every day. There are no hard lines of separation.

This is important to me. As a long-time science writer and business innovator, I need to talk to people who make the science work, who can explain how it works, and who can provide an idea as to where it is going.

There is a lot of on-the-job training at Brimrose, which the company is happy to provide as part of the Brimrose experience. As the faster, massless photon replaces the slower, bulkier electron in just about every facet of our technology lives, this training is priceless. You are being set up with skills that will put in good stead for many years to come.

How far can your idea go at Brimrose? One of our spectrometers is going to the Moon to help NASA in the search for water. Working with Johns Hopkins, technology developed by one of our scientists is destined to reduce infant mortality. We have many similar stories.

Every associate is valued here, and Dr. Rosemeier has established a stable work environment. Despite the economic ups and downs that every company goes through, Brimrose has not had a layoff in its 40+ year history. Dr. Rosemeier has changed lives for the better. He has brought people from all over the world to Brimrose, and to a new life in the United States.

There is a lot of flexibility at Brimrose. The company wants you to find the place where you are most happy and productive. We are constantly pushing the envelope. As a technology-based company, we have to be forward thinkers, imagining how we can make the world a better place through our technology.

There is a very real feeling of community here, exemplified by our Christmas party and bonuses, as well as corporate-wide announcements when someone has done something of merit. Dr. Rosemeier also rewards successful business ideas financially. It is a very encouraging environment.

If Brimrose sounds like the kind of place you would like to work, contact Vlad Stanislavsky or myself at 410-472-7070. We would love to talk to you about becoming part of the Brimrose team.

Our Brimrose AOTF NIR Instrument is going to the Moon to find water!

The Brimrose spectrometer was selected as part of NASA’s Lunar Payload Development Program. (Courtesy: NASA)

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• NASA Related Article - Two Resource-Hunting Tools for the Moon’s Surface

• Space Newsfeed - Two Resource-Hunting Tools for the Moon’s Surface

• BTC Press Release - Brimrose Spectrometer Selected By NASA For Planned Moon Mission

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We are so proud of our people!

Brimrose AO technology has been selected number one over all other AO technology worldwide!

The Brimrose spectrometer will be a part of the NASA program known as the Near Infrared Volatile Spectrometer Instrument, or NIRVSS. Our AOTF NIR Spectrometer is going to the Moon to determine if there is water there!

Using the Brimrose AOTF Hyperspectral Imagers (HSI) in the Fight Against Cancer

Brimrose Research Engineers evaluate a culture sample using an acousto-optic tunable filter hyperspectral imager.

Throughout the past 20 years or so, Brimrose has had a rich and storied history of providing its acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) technology to meet a variety of different needs, which can range from archeology to crime scene detection. Undoubtedly one of the most exciting applications is the detection of cancer, where our AOTF technology has been used in several ways.

In fact, the use of our AOTF technology in this area has given us a seat at the table of a fascinating new technology known as biomedical photonics, or BioPhotonics for short. This is changing the face of medicine, allowing us to view and operate in the human body as never before. More specifically, the use of our instruments is part of a new and growing field known as medical hyperspectral imaging, or MHSI. The use of MHSI does not require the introduction of agents, which is advantageous compared to imaging techniques that require contrast agents.

While I don’t want to get too technical, MHSI is a novel, camera-based method of imaging spectroscopy that integrates spatial and spectroscopic data from tissue in a set of images. MHSI delivers near-real-time images of biomarkers in tissue. It is a promising method for the noninvasive, rapid and inexpensive evaluation of cancer in the tumor bed.

A hyperspectral imaging system is mainly composed of the light source, wavelength dispersion devices and area detectors. The rationale for cancer detection by optical imaging lies in the fact that biochemical and morphological changes associated with lesions alter the absorption, scattering and fluorescence properties; therefore, optical characteristics of tissue can in turn provide valuable diagnostic information.

AOTF Technology: Improving Cancer Detection One Wavelength at a Time

Brimrose’s AOTF technology is a core technology for the company.  AOTF technology allows us to scan hundreds of wavelengths per second, while also capturing critical data at any one or more of these precise wavelengths.

One of the first medical applications where our AOTF technology was used was for the Advanced Biomedical Science and Technology Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The technology was adapted for the purpose of identifying skin cancer. This involved using the AOTF hyperspectral imager to detect cancerous tumors in mice.

The Oak Ridge researchers involved with the study were well pleased with the results: “Hyperspectral imaging sensors provide contiguous spectral signatures obtained from dozens or hundreds of narrow spectral channels. This enables hyperspectral imaging to reveal more useful information for material identification than conventional imaging techniques,” they found. (1)

Their conclusion: “The proposed hyperspectral fluorescence imaging technique can lead to the development of non-invasive in vivo detection of skin cancer without the need of tissue biopsy.” (2)

Another MHSI system with AOTF Brimrose provided to Chinese researchers was used in the evaluation of cancerous tongue tumors.

The results were rather extraordinary: A recognition rate of 96.5 percent was achieved by the researchers. They concluded: “The experimental results demonstrate that the system has great potential as an important imaging technology for medical imaging devices that provide additional diagnostic information regarding tissues under investigation. Although the final diagnostic decision remains the burden of physicians, the system supports physicians during decision making.” (3)

The system designed also included fiber probes for image signal collection, an endoscope, a laser excitation source, an endoscopic illuminator, an intensified charge-coupled device color camera for reflectance detection, a similar camera for fluorescence imaging, and a spectrometer for single-point spectroscopic measurements.

The Brimrose AOTF product also was used with a hyperspectral imager for the detection of cancer in skin, the breast, lungs and the tongue in collaboration with Columbia University Hospital.

Hyperspectral imaging sensors provide contiguous spectral signatures obtained from dozens or hundreds of narrow spectral channels. This enables hyperspectral imaging to reveal more useful information for material identification than conventional imaging techniques.

AOTF: Increasing our Understanding of Numerous Cancers

For example, the ability of AOTF technology used with hyperspectral imaging to provide a wavelength by wavelength analysis of tissue also sets it apart from multispectral imaging, which does not provide that degree of detail. This is critical as different types of cancer are found in focused, limited spectral ranges. For example, ovarian cancer is detected in the 400-640 nm spectral range, prostate cancer in the 450-950 nm range, melanoma in the 364-800 nm spectral range, etc. (4)

Medicine is slowly but methodically discovering the secrets of disease in the human body. An important way to do that is through ways to better understand what is going on in the human body through imaging processes.  Hyperspectral imaging represents an important tool as we further make progress in discovering those secrets.

The future looks bright for MHSI. We expect that MHSI will play an important role for noninvasive disease diagnosis and monitoring, identification and quantitative analysis of cancer biomarkers, image guided minimum invasive surgery, targeted drug delivery and tracking and pharmaceutical drug dosage assessment.

Brimrose now offers the complete AOTF hyperspectral imaging unit, in both the SWIR and NIR ranges. Dr. Sudhir Trivedi is director of R&D at Brimrose Corporation, a position he has held for more than 20 years.

For more information about this blog, please call Brimrose at 410-472-7070 or send email to office@brimrose.com.