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Clinical Photonics

We use light to develop advanced diagnostic tools, wearable sensors, and microscale robots for studying diseases and enabling minimally invasive treatments.

Head of Group

Dr Alex Thompson

Office B411, Bessemer Building,
South Kensington Campus

⇒ X @_Thompson_Alex

What we do

We use photonics to develop new technologies for medicine and to study the pathophysiology of disease. This includes new and improved diagnostic tools as well as microscale robotic devices for therapeutic applications. We use a variety of optical techniques for this purpose such as fluorescence, Raman and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, as well as microscopy and interferometry. We develop devices ranging from wearable sensors and fibre-optic probes for minimally invasive diagnostics through to microscale robots for cellular-scale manipulation and therapy.

Why it is important?

Our research has a number of potential clinical applications including improved monitoring of clinical therapies and interventions (e.g. in inflammatory bowel disease and malnutrition), early diagnosis of infection, and even margin mapping in tumour resection surgery.

How can it benefit patients?

The devices we are developing can potentially provide less invasive and lower cost diagnostics. In turn, this may facilitate patient benefits including earlier diagnosis, earlier identification of relapse (e.g. in therapy response monitoring applications), more widespread deployment and more comfortable patient experiences (e.g. through use of less invasive probes and sensors).

Meet the team

Dr Belal Ahmad
Imperial College Research Fellow

Dr Qian Chen
Clinical Research Fellow

Dr Ahmed Ezzat
Research Postgraduate

Dr Nilanjan Mandal
Research Associate in Optical Sensing for LMICs

Dr Alexander J Thompson
Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sensing

Mr Zeyu Wang
Research Postgraduate

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Tudor:2018:10.1016/j.mattod.2018.07.017,
author = {Tudor, A and Delaney, C and Zhang, H and Thompson, AJ and Curto, VF and Yang, GZ and Higgins, MJ and Diamond, D and Florea, L},
doi = {10.1016/j.mattod.2018.07.017},
journal = {Materials Today},
pages = {807--816},
title = {Fabrication of soft, stimulus-responsive structures with sub-micron resolution via two-photon polymerization of poly(ionic liquid)s},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2018.07.017},
volume = {21},
year = {2018}
}

Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Soft, stimulus-responsive 3D structures created from crosslinked poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) have been fabricated at unprecedented sub-micron resolution by direct laser writing (DLW). These structures absorb considerable quantities of solvent (e.g., water, alcohol, and acetone) to produce PIL hydrogels that exhibit stimulus-responsive behavior. Due to their flexibility and soft, responsive nature, these structures are much more akin to biological systems than the conventional, highly crosslinked, rigid structures typically produced using 2-photon polymerization (2-PP). These PIL gels expand/contract due to solvent uptake/release, and, by exploiting inherited properties of the ionic liquid monomer (ILM), thermo-responsive gels that exhibit reversible area change (30 ± 3%, n = 40) when the temperature is raised from 20 °C to 70 °C can be created. The effect is very rapid, with the response indistinguishable from the microcontroller heating rate of 7.4 °C s−1. The presence of an endoskeleton-like framework within these structures influences movement arising from expansion/contraction and assists the retention of structural integrity during actuation cycling.
AU  - Tudor,A
AU  - Delaney,C
AU  - Zhang,H
AU  - Thompson,AJ
AU  - Curto,VF
AU  - Yang,GZ
AU  - Higgins,MJ
AU  - Diamond,D
AU  - Florea,L
DO  - 10.1016/j.mattod.2018.07.017
EP  - 816
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 1369-7021
SP  - 807
TI  - Fabrication of soft, stimulus-responsive structures with sub-micron resolution via two-photon polymerization of poly(ionic liquid)s
T2  - Materials Today
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2018.07.017
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/63170
VL  - 21
ER  -