Calibration of Raman spectroscopy to allow routine use in clinical environment ("CAL")

Raman spectroscopy is routinely used in advanced laboratories in academia, environmental testing and pharmaceutical development. Deploying Raman spectroscopy currently requires a facility with highly trained professional laboratory staff capable of managing large and complex systems. As a result, Raman spectroscopy is not as widely deployed as it could be.

The opportunity to deploy Raman spectroscopy beyond traditional settings is about to be transformed: The size of the spectrometers required has reduced to <10% of what they were 5 years ago and spectrometers are now smaller than a shoe box. Crucially, the cost of lasers and detectors is declining significantly, resulting in spectrometers that are a fraction of the cost (for a given capability) that they would have been 5 years ago. In addition, more sophisticated methods of data analysis allow for the extraction of greater insight from the output of these spectrometers.

As a result of these advances, the price/performance of Raman spectrometers has been transformed. Importantly, the reliability, deployability and ease-of-use has similarly improved. This creates the possibility of a low-cost diagnostic that could be easily placed in a central laboratory, and even at point-of-care (PoC) at Primary Care level (GP, Pharmacy), to address routine clinical questions and provide near instantaneous answers.

This project relates to the calibration of an initial clinical diagnostic product. It is derived from an approach originally developed by the Company's founder (a physics PhD) for verifying the authenticity of unopened bottles of wine. The company successfully detected variation between wines of a given grape/vintage/vineyard. A similar approach is being used to detect variation between diseased and non-diseased urine. Initial tests on synthetic and human urine have validated the potential.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading center for measurement science and technology research in the UK. NPL has a range of Raman spectroscopy techniques available, including spontaneous Raman spectroscopy techniques and coherent Raman techniques such as stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy. The NPL will work with Veritie to develop a calibration methodology to assure that the diagnostic accuracy of a large number of widely deployed Raman Spectroscopy based devices can be assured throughout their service life.

This is a challenge as the devices are highly sensitive to vibration and thermal cycling, and the treatment of the samples can also impact analysis. Developing a calibration approach will unlock the market for Veritie and also for other UK companies leveraging Raman Spectroscopy.