I am the recipient of a Springboard Academy of Medical Sciences grant. The grant, Next Generation Biopsy NEXTGB was designed to help cutting-edge research in the field of biomedical science, with a focus on developing innovative biopsy techniques for diagnosing and treating various diseases. The University of Kent has been a proud recipient of this grant, and the research conducted under this program has yielded some remarkable breakthroughs.
The goal of the project is to develop an OCT-based instrument to image Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), the most common type of skin cancer. So far we have developed a handheld device depicted in the figure above equipped with a liquid lens that allows for shifting focus inside the sample, resulting in high-resolution lateral images throughout the imaging range. Our instrument can produce images with longitudinal resolutions of approximately 5 μm, limited by the light source employed, whose spectrum spans over 45 nm at a central wavelength of 840 nm, and better than 2 μm transversely. It should be noted that the data is acquired, processed, and displayed in real time. Furthermore, the camera used in the spectrometer can operate at 70 kHz. This technological development is a significant step forward in the field of imaging. The ability to produce high-resolution images with such precision and speed is a testament to the beauty of the combination of Master-Slave OCT with the dynamic movement of the focusing position inside the sample. This combination can transform how we approach imaging and provide future research and development opportunities.
Additional details on this project can be found here: