In this section
We use light to develop advanced diagnostic tools, wearable sensors, and microscale robots for studying diseases and enabling minimally invasive treatments.
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.
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.
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).
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
@inproceedings{Fletcher:2023:10.1117/12.2648827,
author = {Fletcher, T and Monfort-Sanchez, E and Keshavarz, M and Avery, J and Ashrafian, H and Darzi, AW and Thompson, AJ},
doi = {10.1117/12.2648827},
pages = {1--6},
publisher = {SPIE},
title = {Quantifying hypoxia with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for advanced prognostication and real-time response monitoring in rectal cancer: an in vivo feasibility study},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2648827},
year = {2023}
}
TY - CPAPER
AB - Tumour hypoxia is a critical factor in treatment failure and resistance, and its accurate measurement with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) could be used for prognostic and response monitoring purposes. In this in vivo characterisation study, we sequentially measured oxygenation trends over the entire course of tumour growth in mice using a multi-depth, fibre-optic DRS probe. Results demonstrated a clear downtrend in oxygenation over time. This progression was not always linear, with significant heterogeneity over time and between mice. Our findings will be further validated against gold standards prior to investigating whether hypoxia can be used to predict radiotherapy responses.
AU - Fletcher,T
AU - Monfort-Sanchez,E
AU - Keshavarz,M
AU - Avery,J
AU - Ashrafian,H
AU - Darzi,AW
AU - Thompson,AJ
DO - 10.1117/12.2648827
EP - 6
PB - SPIE
PY - 2023///
SN - 1605-7422
SP - 1
TI - Quantifying hypoxia with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for advanced prognostication and real-time response monitoring in rectal cancer: an in vivo feasibility study
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2648827
UR - https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/12372/2648827/Quantifying-hypoxia-with-diffuse-reflectance-spectroscopy-for-advanced-prognostication-and/10.1117/12.2648827.full
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/104904
ER -
The Hamlyn Centre
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Imperial College
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