Max Diem

Full Professor

316 Hurtig Hall
Tel: 617.373.2922
Fax: 617.373.8795
m.diem@neu.edu
Lab Website

Physical and Biophysical Chemistry, Bio-Imaging, Medical Diagnostics

Education

1976 PhD., University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
1970 Vordiplom (BS) Universität Karlsruhe, Germany

Awards

2010-2011 Guest Professorship, Protein Research Department, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany
2006 Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) National Tour Speaker
2000 Lester W. Strock Award, SAS, for outstanding work in vibrational spectroscopy

Research Interests

The research in Prof. Diem’s laboratory is centered on the development of optical methods for medical diagnosis. In contrast to standard pathology, where stained cells and tissues are examined visually under a microscope, we measure changes in cellular composition using molecular fingerprint techniques, such as infrared and Raman micro-spectroscopy.
The research being carried out is divided into three major areas. In our work on tissue diagnostics, we have developed methods for the detection and diagnosis of secondary (metastatic) tumors in lymph nodes (Figure 1) by methods of infrared spectral imaging. We are working on producing instrumentation and software that can diagnose and classify tissue sections, and provide the physician with an objective diagnosis of disease. Similarly, we are using the infrared spectral signatures of individual exfoliated cells to determine pre-cancer and viral infection (Figure 2). The infrared methods have been licensed to a start-up company to commercialize the diagnostic methodologies.
We also use Raman micro-spectroscopy, in conjunction with multivariate imaging analysis al-gorithms, to follow cellular processes and drug uptake into cells by a minimally invasive meth-od.

Selected Publications (2010-2012)

• J.M.Schubert, K. Papamarkakis, B. Bird, M. Miljković, K. Bedrossian, N.Laver, and M. Diem, “Spec-tral Cyto-Pathology: Hormonal and Anatomical Influences on Individual Squamous Cells”, (2010) Laboratory Investigations, 90, 1068-1077

• B.Bird, M.Miljković and M.Diem, “Two step resonant Mie scattering correction of infrared micro-spectral data: human lymph node tissue”, (2010) J.Biophotonics, 3(8-9) 597-608.

• C.-Y.Lin, J.L.Suhalim, C.Nien-Shy, M.Miljković, M.Diem, J.V.Jester, E.O. Potma, “Picosecond spec-tral CARS imaging with principal component analysis of meibomian glands”, (2011) J.Biomed.Optics, 16(2), 021104 1-9

• C.Cherchi, T.Chernenko, M.Diem and A.Z. Gu, “Impact of nTiO2 Exposure on Cellular Structure of Anabaena variabilis and Evidence of Internalization”, (2011) Env.Toxic. & Chemistry, 30(4), 861-869

• B.Bird, M.Miljković, N.Laver and M.Diem, "Spectral Detection of Micro-Metastases and Individual Metastatic Cells in Lymph Node Histology", (2011) Techn. Cancer Res. Treatment (TCRT), 10(2), 135-144

• M.Hedegaard, C.Matthäus, S.Hassing, C.Krafft, M.Diem and J.Popp, "Spectral unmixing and cluster-ing algorithms for assessment of single cells by Raman microscopic imaging", (2011) Theor.Chem. Acc., 130, 1249-1260

• D.R.Whelan, K.R.Bambery, P.Heraud, M.J.Tobin, M.Diem, D.McNaughton and B.R.Wood, "Monitor-ing the reversible B to A-like transition of DNA in eukaryotic cells using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy", (2011) Nucleic Acids Research, 39(13) 5439-5448

• A.I.Mazur, E.J.(Swain) Marcsisin, B.Bird, M.Miljković and M.Diem, "Evaluating Different Fixation Pro-tocols for Spectral Cytopathology, Part I", (2012), Anal.Chem, in press