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{Coda:2011:10.1016/j.gie.2011.03.845,
author = {Coda, S and Kennedy, GT and Thompson, A and Talbot, CB and Alexandrov, Y and Munro, I and Neil, MA and Stamp, GW and Elson, DS and Dunsby, C and French, PM and Thillainayagam, AV},
doi = {10.1016/j.gie.2011.03.845},
publisher = {Elsevier},
title = {FLUORESCENCE LIFETIME IMAGING FOR LABEL-FREE CONTRAST OF GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASES},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gie.2011.03.845},
year = {2011}
}
TY - CPAPER
AB - INTRODUCTION: Autofluorescence (AF) is a means to distinguish between normal and diseased tissue, but its molecular basis is unclear and intensity-based contrast is often not sufficiently specific. Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) maps the decay rate of fluorescence emitted from tissue samples, providing quantitative AF contrast. FLIM has been recently implemented by our group in three endoscopic instruments consisting of a confocal laser endomicroscope, a wide-field fibre-optic endoscope and a single point fibre-optic probe. FLIM has the potential to report on tissue structure and function in real-time during endoscopy, providing a label-free means to detect the early onset of diseases that cause changes in tissue AF. We are developing these 3 modalities for in vivo clinical application, supported by ex vivo studies on freshly-biopsied/resected GI tissues.AIMS & METHODS: In this study, autofluorescence from 25 endoscopic samples from different GI sites was excited using a conventional confocal FLIM microscope in the range 405-420nm, which is compatible with our FLIM endoscopes, and which is the range needed to excite a number of important endogenous GI tissue fluorophores such as porphyrins, flavins, collagen and elastin. The samples were collected from patients undergoing endoscopy, transported to the FLIM laboratory to be imaged and then submitted for histopathology. The following diseases were investigated: Barrett’s oesophagus, gastric cancer, ulcerative colitis, adenomatous polyps and colon cancer. ROC curve analysis was used to statistically test the significance of the differences described.RESULTS: Our preliminary data reveals that lifetime of dysplastic or neoplastic samples may be either shorter or longer than that of normal tissue. Increased lifetime values have been observed in Barrett’s oesophagus, colon cancer and polyps. Gastric cancer and ulcerative colitis have shown a decrease in lifetime. In addition, a broadening of
AU - Coda,S
AU - Kennedy,GT
AU - Thompson,A
AU - Talbot,CB
AU - Alexandrov,Y
AU - Munro,I
AU - Neil,MA
AU - Stamp,GW
AU - Elson,DS
AU - Dunsby,C
AU - French,PM
AU - Thillainayagam,AV
DO - 10.1016/j.gie.2011.03.845
PB - Elsevier
PY - 2011///
SN - 0016-5107
TI - FLUORESCENCE LIFETIME IMAGING FOR LABEL-FREE CONTRAST OF GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASES
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gie.2011.03.845
UR - http://www.giejournal.org/article/S0016-5107%2811%2901065-0/fulltext
ER -
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