Advanced fibre based endoscopes for Brillouin imaging

Lead Research Organisation: Imperial College London
Department Name: Physics

Abstract

Brillouin microscopy is an emerging technique that allows determination of mechanical properties of biological tissues on a micrometre scale. Our research group has pioneered this technique to determine the stiffness of artheroscrelotic plaques in mouse artery. These results revealed that artery walls have a complex mechanical structure with harder muscle tissues and softer lipid regions often layered. The measurements were carried out on excised artery tissues after microtome sectioning. We now would like to extend the method to permit in-vivo measurements. This is currently hindered by two limiting factors: the robustness of the spectrometer that lies in the heart of Brillouin imaging and the ability to deliver light to and collect from arteries. The currently ongoing design of more robust spectrometers opens the possibility of clinical applications. This project needs to be supplemented by the development of new endoscopes for both light delivery and collection, as well as for the provision of other services to the artery. This project is focused on the latter

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
EP/N509486/1 01/10/2016 31/03/2022
1760086 Studentship EP/N509486/1 01/10/2015 30/09/2019 Yuchen XIANG
 
Description The major challenge is the design of this novel device was the lack of SNR, mostly due to background noise.

Our recent work on denoising techniques using software means has addressed this challenge to a certain extent, allowing for short acquistion times to be possible and translating the issue into the data processing stage.

In terms of hardware, a new version is being worked on which uses a specialised optical fibre (hollow core fibre), which is in theory background-free. Preliminary results have been obtained and will be published soon.
Exploitation Route Combining the advances that we have made both in terms of hardware and software development, a prototype device is feasible.
Sectors Healthcare