A New Light on Biophotonics University of St Andrews

Knowledge Transfer Showcase 2008 A New Light on Biophotonics University of St Andrews A key driver within the emergent and rapidly growing industry of biotechnology, which is already of significant importance to the Scottish economy, is the innova- tive technology of biophotonics. This is attracting significant interest already from the end user community and will aid Scotland in developing new platforms leading to the creation of wealth in the biotech and healthcare sectors of its economy. Making a significant contribution to this research activity A wholly new integrated trap geometry has also been is the work carried out by the Optical Trapping Group at developed, which can produce a microchip where lasers the University of St Andrews. Here studies on several and analyte are combined. This chip can be used with interrelated and patented technologies contribute to the cell sorting described above or in conjunction with a growing and commercially exploitable portfolio. advances in Raman spectroscopy. However, it is even These include the development of a novel optical way more versatile than this and can be configured to look at to separate or fractionate cells in a microfluidic environ- fluorescence, detection and analysis. This could form the ment. This enables the sorting of small volumes of ana- basis of a disposable system to be used in health centres lyte without the addition of markers. Cell sorting on this or hospitals. scale is a burgeoning and exciting new area that is likely Prof. Kishan Dholakia to be useful where bulk sorting methods are either too [email protected] cumbersome or expensive. Currently, in healthcare, the assessment of clinical samples for the identification of cancer or its precursors requires light microscopic examination and interpretation by trained personnel. This is expensive and, often, sub- jective. The development of an optical approach would both reduce the need for human intervention and increase the objectivity of assessment, thereby reducing the costs of laboratory assessment of cytological samples. This technology would also have applications in biological and biomedical research. The potential economic benefits are therefore two-fold, ie a reduction in healthcare costs and the production of a novel technology. It is envisaged that this potential would be realised within five years as the group has already developed new methods to use Raman spectroscopy for cells and tissue. This provides an optical signature for the type of cell or tissue, which will reduce the acquisition time to allow rapid diagosis of cancerous or other abnormal cells. The Scottish Universities Physics Alliance Knowledge Transfer Showcase 2008 A New Light Source for Medicine University of St Andrews and Tayside Health Board Recent advances in organic semiconductors at the University of St Andrews have led to the development of a new range of wearable light sources for medical applications. With the help of Scottish Enterprise and a Proof of Concept award, the University and Tayside Health Board at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee have commer- cialised the technology and created a company, known as Lumicure Ltd. This company plans to take the products to market, the first of which will be a new treatment for skin cancer. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has become a standard Lumicure’s first product will be applied as a simple dress- therapy for approximately 20% of skin cancers, the inci- ing, in two parts, with the ability to deliver a single PDT dence of which is growing rapidly throughout the world. treatment. The first part of the device will contain the bat- Skin diseases of a malignant and pre-malignant nature teries and the microcontroller, while the second part will now affect 15 to 20% of the UK population, 40% of consist of the lightweight organic light source. Americans and up to 75% of Australians at some point in their lives. Existing treatments are, however, typically Prof. Ifor Samuel [email protected] invasive or highly unpleasant and can lead to secondary problems such as infections and scarring. PDT, on the other hand, uses simply the combination of a light-sensitive pharmaceutical compound and a red light. When the light is shone onto the treatment area, it triggers the light-sensitive compound to undergo a pho- totoxic reaction whereby small quantities of singlet oxy- gen are produced only within the tumour. This destroys the cancerous cells without touching or accumulating within the healthy surrounding tissue. By exploiting recent advances in organic optoelectronic materials, Lumicure has developed lightweight, flat, light-emitting panels (OLEDs) powered by small batter- ies, which can be worn by the patient in a similar way to a sticking plaster. This allows the patient to move around during treatment and avoids the need for a hospital stay. The company has also already identified a major OLED manufacturer for the pilot clinical trial. The Scottish Universities Physics Alliance Knowledge Transfer Showcase 2008 A Non-Invasive Optoelectronic Device for Drug Detection University of St Andrews, University of Glasgow and Tayside Health Board This Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept funded project aims to develop a portable instrument to optically monitor drug levels in a non-invasive manner. It brings together photophysics and optoelectronic expertise with clinical excellence at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, and has resulted in the construction of instrumentation for the detection of drugs. and economic benefits. The technology is also forecast- ed to further assist in establishing Scotland as a major player in the development of medical instrumentation. Technology transfer and instrumentation are fundamen- tal to the project, which has attracted the interest of a number of large pharmaceutical companies. A technical- ly advanced, portable instrument with both medical approval and the ability to be operated easily by medical staff is clearly essential in evaluating the concept as patient data is critical. Therefore, for the project to suc- The correct dosage of pharmaceuticals is clearly of great ceed, teamwork between the photophysics, instrumenta- social benefit, especially where the drug concentration tion and clinical aspects is vital so as to easily transfer required to produce clinical results is close to that which the knowledge base to the end user, the manufacturer or causes toxicity. Historically, drug levels have been meas- service provider. ured mainly by taking blood samples and subjecting these to laboratory analysis. However, most drugs have The ultimate goal is to provide either a measurement their effect at the tissue level and there may be a large service or instrumentation sales to the medical sector. discrepancy between levels in blood and tissues. Potential markets include industrial and academic pharmaceutical research laboratories, hospitals and possibly Therefore, the ability to routinely assess drug levels in even general practice. tissues could have large implications for individual medical care. By improving treatment in this way and allow- Dr P. Marsh and Dr M. O’Dwyer ing scarce healthcare resources to be used more effec- [email protected] tively, this project, therefore, aims to result in vast social [email protected] The Scottish Universities Physics Alliance Knowledge Transfer Showcase 2008 Adaptive Optics in SUPA UKATC and the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde In the field of adaptive optics (AO), SUPA’s activities range from the research, development and prototyping of AO devices to the design, build and testing of complete AO systems. For example, deformable mirrors are used in telescopes to applications include improving line-of-sight optical commu- compensate for atmospheric distortions, and a mirror on a nications. glass shell only 2mm thick requires voice coil actuators to distort the surface. However, the current design of the The beam quality in high-powered lasers can be improved European Extra Large Telescope, in which SUPA has via the use of an adaptive resonator mirror to compensate been involved, requires an adaptive mirror 2.4m in diame- for thermal lensing and other distortions (Figure 1). This ter. AO is also being used to improve imaging in earth can lead to improvements in brightness and reductions in observation satellites via stabilising mirrors, and other warm-up times by a factor of ten or more. Figure 1. High brightness lasers can use adaptive optics Figure 2. The ‘Nano Hand’ and its user interface. AO techniques have been applied to the imaging, tracking and trapping of small particles in microscopy to compensate for optical aberrations. This enables the production of better images, an increased depth of field and tighter focusing of laser beams. Complex holographic laser tweezer systems can now attack by viruses. Finally, studies of particle trajectories be controlled by simple yet adaptive user interfaces, and their dynamics during combustion are leading to an enabling the manipulation of particles by a ‘Nano Hand’ understanding of how to improve fuel mixes, potentially (Figure 2). Sophisticated AO systems are also being increasing the efficiency of combustion engines by up to researched that track particles in four dimensions, allow- 30%. ing relatively easy studies into cell dynamics and cell The Scottish Universities Physics Alliance Knowledge Transfer Showcase 2008 The Institute of Photonics has successfully demonstrated thermal lensing com- pensation in a solid state laser using a 37-element intra-cavity adaptive optic and custom optimisation software. This provides automatic mode control of the laser and establishes and maintains laser alignment. It also has potential in ensuring stable mode operation over the entire operating range of the laser. For laser manufacturers, an AO element could be used ration that the sample itself introduces. With suitable algo- to compensate for the effects of variation of optic specifi- rithms adjusting the adaptive mirror to maximise contrast cations. It could, additionally, allow a laser to give in the image, it gives much clearer images, a useful output within a very short time after switch on.

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