title: Pump-Probe Microscopic Imaging of Jurassic-Aged Eumelanin.
abstract: Melanins are biological pigments found throughout the animal kingdom that have many diverse functions. Pump-probe imaging can differentiate the two kinds of melanins found in human skin, eumelanin and pheomelanin, the distributions of which are relevant to the diagnosis of melanoma. The long-term stability of the melanin pump-probe signal is central to using this technology to analyze melanin distributions in archived tissue samples to improve diagnostic procedures. This report shows that most of the pump-probe signal from eumelanin derived from a Jurassic cephalopod is essentially identical to that of eumelanin extracted from its modern counterpart,Sepia officinalis. However, additional classes of eumelanin signals found in the fossil reveal that the pump-probe signature is sensitive to iron content, which could be a valuable tool for pathologists who cannot otherwise know the microscopic distributions of iron in melanins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27705.
authors.forename: Mary Jane
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Keely E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Glass
authors.forename: Jesse W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Philip R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Wilby
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Warren S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Warren
keywords: eumelanin; iron; melanoma; microscopy; nonlinear spectroscopy; pigment