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
@article{Thompson:2015:10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b05099,
author = {Thompson, AJ and Herling, TW and Kubankova, M and Vysniauskas, A and Knowles, TP and Kuimova, MK},
doi = {10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b05099},
journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry B},
pages = {10170--10179},
title = {Molecular Rotors Provide Insights into Microscopic Structural Changes During Protein Aggregation.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b05099},
volume = {119},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - 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.
AU - Thompson,AJ
AU - Herling,TW
AU - Kubankova,M
AU - Vysniauskas,A
AU - Knowles,TP
AU - Kuimova,MK
DO - 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b05099
EP - 10179
PY - 2015///
SN - 1520-6106
SP - 10170
TI - Molecular Rotors Provide Insights into Microscopic Structural Changes During Protein Aggregation.
T2 - Journal of Physical Chemistry B
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b05099
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/25468
VL - 119
ER -
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