Novel photonics technology is being developed under a new UK government funding scheme.
Announced on 2 September, the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) cross research council responsive mode (CRCRM) pilot scheme is supporting new and creative interdisciplinary ideas emerging from the research community.
Thirty six projects are set to share £32.4 million from the first round, and a second round of funding has just been launched with a further £32.5 million available.
Raman spectroscopy for dementia diagnosis and ovarian cancer research
Under the scheme, the University of Southampton will develop its multi-excitation Raman spectroscopy (MX-Raman) method to transform dementia diagnosis.
The researchers have already tested the laser-based MX-Raman technique on a cohort of dementia patient cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, which yielded promising preliminary results. The technique will now be integrated into a clinically-deployable device.
“We want to develop the method further and establish it on the more easily available, less invasive biofluid samples - and test on a larger population of dementia patients with a range of different diseases and at different stages,” the researchers say.
The clinical device could potentially be 10x cheaper and 10-100x faster than current tests, while being highly accurate at telling apart different dementias.
Researchers from the University of Glasgow will also develop a Raman spectroscopy method, but to advance ovarian cancer research. The team received £1.1m to support the development of Raman spectroscopy enhanced with AI to study the microbiota of ovarian cancer – the most lethal and difficult-to-treat form of gynaecological disease in the developed world.
Photonics in tissue engineering
Researchers at the University of Oxford are using light to advance tissue engineering, to enable therapeutic approaches that repair or regenerate tissues and organs.
The pattern and shape of developing tissue is controlled by the dynamic regulation and distribution of soluble natural chemicals called morphogens. Replicating this to recreate the three-dimensional complexity of human tissues for engineering purposes presents a significant and unsolved challenge. Potentially, this could be achieved by controlling and directing tissue development using a precise light stimulus, however light-sensitive morphogens are currently unknown.
Using a photopharmacology approach – where the activity of drugs is regulated using light – the project aims to develop light-sensitive and biologically-active morphogens to enable 3D light patterning of complex tissue.
‘Successful achievement of this aim will provide a proof of concept that can be developed into downstream applications which would have transformational and disruptive impact,” said Professor Matthew Fuchter, who will lead the research.
“For example, using light-patterning to recreate complex 2D and 3D architectures of healthy or dysfunctional cells will allow for the generation of models to study diseases, models to investigate personalised medicine, models for further developmental biology studies, or the creation of synthetic organs," Fuchter said.
Credit for main image: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock
