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

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  • Journal article
    Thompson AJ, Holmes JA, 2015,

    Treating hepatitis C - what's new?

    , AUSTRALIAN PRESCRIBER, Vol: 38, Pages: 191-197, ISSN: 0312-8008
  • Journal article
    Thompson AJ, Herling TW, Kubankova M, Vysniauskas A, Knowles TP, Kuimova MKet al., 2015,

    Molecular Rotors Provide Insights into Microscopic Structural Changes During Protein Aggregation.

    , Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol: 119, Pages: 10170-10179, ISSN: 1520-6106

    Changes in microscopic viscosity represent an important characteristic of structural transitions in soft matter systems. Here we demonstrate the use of molecular rotors to explore the changes in microrheology accompanying the transition of proteins from their soluble states into a gel phase composed of amyloid fibrils. The formation of beta-sheet rich protein aggregates, including amyloid fibrils, is a hallmark of a number of neurodegenerative disorders, and as such, the mechanistic details of this process are actively sought after. In our experiments, molecular rotors report an increase in rigidity of approximately three orders of magnitude during the aggregation reaction. Moreover, phasor analysis of the fluorescence decay signal from the molecular rotors suggests the presence of multiple distinct mechanistic stages during the aggregation process. Our results show that molecular rotors can reveal key microrheological features of protein systems not observable through classical fluorescent probes operating in light switch mode.

  • Journal article
    Brydegaard M, Thompson AJ, Andersson-Engels S, Bendsoe N, Svanberg K, Svanberg Set al., 2015,

    Complete parameterization of temporally and spectrally resolved laser induced fluorescence data with applications in bio-photonics

    , CHEMOMETRICS AND INTELLIGENT LABORATORY SYSTEMS, Vol: 142, Pages: 95-106, ISSN: 0169-7439
  • Conference paper
    Mika JT, Thompson AJ, Hofkens J, Kuimova MKet al., 2015,

    Measurement of the Viscosity of E. coli Membranes using Molecular Rotors and Flim

    , 59th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical-Society, Publisher: CELL PRESS, Pages: 542A-542A, ISSN: 0006-3495
  • Journal article
    Tang T-YD, Hak CRC, Thompson AJ, Kuimova MK, Williams DS, Perriman AW, Mann Set al., 2014,

    Fatty acid membrane assembly on coacervate microdroplets as a step towards a hybrid protocell model

    , Nature Chemistry, Vol: 6, Pages: 527-533, ISSN: 1755-4330

    Mechanisms of prebiotic compartmentalization are central to providing insights into how protocellular systems emerged on the early Earth. Protocell models are based predominantly on the membrane self-assembly of fatty-acid vesicles, although membrane-free scenarios that involve liquid–liquid microphase separation (coacervation) have also been considered. Here we integrate these alternative models of prebiotic compartmentalization and develop a hybrid protocell model based on the spontaneous self-assembly of a continuous fatty-acid membrane at the surface of preformed coacervate microdroplets prepared from cationic peptides/polyelectrolytes and adenosine triphosphate or oligo/polyribonucleotides. We show that the coacervate-supported membrane is multilamellar, and mediates the selective uptake or exclusion of small and large molecules. The coacervate interior can be disassembled without loss of membrane integrity, and fusion and growth of the hybrid protocells can be induced under conditions of high ionic strength. Our results highlight how notions of membrane-mediated compartmentalization, chemical enrichment and internalized structuration can be integrated in protocell models via simple chemical and physical processes.

  • Conference paper
    Thompson AJ, Tang T-YD, Herling TW, Hak CRC, Mann S, Knowles TPJ, Kuimova MKet al., 2014,

    Quantitative sensing of microviscosity in protocells and amyloid materials using fluorescence lifetime imaging of molecular rotors

    , Conference on Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XII, Publisher: SPIE- Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers, ISSN: 0277-786X

    Molecular rotors are fluorophores that have a fluorescence quantum yield that depends upon intermolecular rotation. The fluorescence quantum yield, intensity and lifetime of molecular rotors all vary as functions of viscosity, as high viscosities inhibit intermolecular rotation and cause an increase in the non-radiative decay rate. As such, molecular rotors can be used to probe viscosity on microscopic scales. Here, we apply fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to measure the fluorescence lifetimes of three different molecular rotors, in order to determine the microscopic viscosity in two model systems with significant biological interest. First, the constituents of a novel protocell – a model of a prebiotic cell – were studied using the molecular rotors BODIPY C10 and kiton red. Second, amyloid formation was investigated using the molecular rotor Cy3. © (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

  • Journal article
    Coda S, Thompson AJ, Kennedy GT, Roche KL, Ayaru L, Bansi DS, Stamp GW, Thillainayagam AV, French PMW, Dunsby Cet al., 2014,

    Fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy of tissue autofluorescence in normal and diseased colon measured ex vivo using a fiber-optic probe

    , Biomedical Optics Express, Vol: 5, Pages: 515-538, ISSN: 2156-7085

    We present an ex vivo study of temporally and spectrally resolved autofluorescence in a total of 47 endoscopic excision biopsy/resection specimens from colon, using pulsed excitation laser sources operating at wavelengths of 375 nm and 435 nm. A paired analysis of normal and neoplastic (adenomatous polyp) tissue specimens obtained from the same patient yielded a significant difference in the mean spectrally averaged autofluorescence lifetime −570 ± 740 ps (p = 0.021, n = 12). We also investigated the fluorescence signature of non-neoplastic polyps (n = 6) and inflammatory bowel disease (n = 4) compared to normal tissue in a small number of specimens.

  • Journal article
    Karim NHA, Mendoza O, Shivalingam A, Thompson AJ, Ghosh S, Kuimova MK, Vilar Ret al., 2014,

    Salphen metal complexes as tunable G-quadruplex binders and optical probes

    , RSC ADVANCES, Vol: 4, Pages: 3355-3363, ISSN: 2046-2069
  • Journal article
    Clark PJ, Aghemo A, Degasperi E, Galmozzi E, Urban TJ, Vock DM, Patel K, Thompson AJ, Rumi MG, D'Ambrosio R, Muir AJ, Colombo Met al., 2013,

    Inosine triphosphatase deficiency helps predict anaemia, anaemia management and response in chronic hepatitis C therapy

    , JOURNAL OF VIRAL HEPATITIS, Vol: 20, Pages: 858-866, ISSN: 1352-0504
  • Conference paper
    Coda S, Kelly DJ, Lagarto JL, Manning HB, Patalay R, Sparks H, Thompson AJ, Warren SC, Dudhia J, Kennedy G, Nickdel MB, Talbot CB, Yamamoto K, Neil MAA, Itoh Y, McGinty J, Stamp GW, Thillainayagam AV, Dunsby C, French PMWet al., 2013,

    Autofluorescence lifetime imaging and metrology for medical research and clinical diagnosis

    We report the development of instrumentation to utilise autofluorescence lifetime for the study and diagnosis of disease including cancer and osteoarthritis. ©2013 The Optical Society (OSA).

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