 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News |
|
|
|
|
home
> news >
Press Releases |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Issue Date:
25 April 2020 |
|
|
|
|
£750,000
dti grant for early diagnosis research |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A collaborative research
project between Mesophotonics Ltd, the University of Southampton and
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded a
£750,000 grant by the UK Government's Department of Trade
and Industry Technology Programme.
The dti grant supports research into a non-invasive medical diagnosis
technique using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). If successful,
the technique, which uses laser light to produce a unique molecular
fingerprint of constituents in a tear sample, will lead to near real-time
identification of patient conditions. As a result the prognosis and
well being of patients will improve and health service costs associated
with misdiagnosis can be significantly reduced.
The initial phase of the research will focus on identifying the viral
particles expressed in tear film from patients with conjunctivitis
– a disease notoriously hard to diagnosis as both viral and anti-bacterial
strands produce similar symptoms. If misdiagnosed, incorrect treatment
can lead to long-term infection and in extreme cases, blindness. With
more than 840,000 cases a year in the UK, successful real-time, cost-effective
diagnosis could save the NHS an estimated £471m over 10 years
in terms of savings in drugs, laboratory time and the number of patient
visits.
The research has been made possible by Mesophotonics' a University
of Southampton spin-out company. Using its expertise in photonic crystal
design, the company developed Klarite, a SERS substrate, that when
used with Raman instrumentation delivers readings one million times
more sensitive than previously achievable. Unlike traditional biochemical
diagnosis such as culture-based testing, SERS can analyse a range
of bodily fluids including synovial fluid, tears and blood plasma
and can simultaneously detect multiple biomarkers, obtaining chemical
signatures in less than two minutes.
A member of the research team, Dr Nick Stone of Gloucestershire Royal
Hospital, has pioneered the use of Raman spectroscopy in medical diagnosis
for more than 9 years and believes that the project will result in
significant steps towards early diagnosis of a number of systemic
diseases and local infections.
"Tear film is of great clinical diagnostic value but in the past
there was no way to detect the extremely low concentration of viral
particles. The increased sensitivity provided by Photonic Crystal
(PC) SERS substrates such as Klarite enables us to separate the characteristic
Raman signature from background noise and natural fluorescence. It
also provides test-to-test reproducibility, which in the past has
prevented the use of Raman in clinical applications. If successful
the project could enable the technique to be used for early diagnosis
of a range of other diseases including hepatitis, HIV, diabetes and
chlamydia."
The project will run until January 2008.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
