We report the development of a novel point-scanning frequency-domain (FD) fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) system. The system, which was customized for label-free metabolic and biochemical imaging of oral epithelial tissue, is capable of simultaneous excitation at 375nm and 445nm, emission detection across 4 spectral bands, real-time fluorescence modulation and phase lifetime calculation, and low-cost data acquisition implementation using an Abaco FMC104 digitizer, Xilinx Zedboard FPGA, and Python software on the host computer. In this work we discuss our challenges and workflow with the goal of helping fellow researchers develop versatile and cost-effective FLIM systems for biomedical and clinical imaging applications.
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