Optical Coherence Tomography
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive 3D imaging technique that allows us to image up to around 1 mm into scattering tissue with high resolution. I have worked on-and-off in OCT since my PhD which, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, looked into applying OCT to imaging historical artworks and museum artefacts. I focused mainly on solving technical challenges, including reducing speckle [Paper] and improving the usable axial range.
I begin working in OCT again from 2017 when I returned to the University of Kent, initially focusing on robotic [Paper] and endoscopic [Paper] OCT. More recently, with NIHR funding, we have been developing OCT-based sensors for opthalmic surgery [Paper]. I am currently working on approaches to low-cost, handheld OCT which has been funded by the MRC/BBSRC Impact Accelerator Accounts at Kent
Endoscopic Microscopy
Endoscopic microscopes (or endomicroscopes) are thin imaging probes that allow us to image tissue at high resolution. Flexible endomicroscopes can be used endoscopically, potentially allowing clinicians to view tissue and make diagnosis without needing to take an invasive biopsy.
While at Imperial College London, working under Prof Guang-Zhong Yang, I focused on endomicroscopes that use fibre imaging bundles. Fibre bundles contain thousand of individual fibre cores, together acting as a flexible image relay. I worked on enhancing resolution and optical sectioning (selecting only light from the in-focus plane of the tissue) and on making devices lower cost and more accessible.
We developed techniques for achieving high frame rate optically-sectioned fluorescence endomicroscopy using line scanning [Paper1, Paper2], as well as exploring white light microscopy via fibre bundles [Paper1, Paper2]. Working with various roboticists, we investigated how endomicroscopes could be used in conjunction with mechanical scanning systems to enable us to image larger areas of tissue [Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3]
While at Imperial College I also collaborated on studies looking at potential applications of endomicroscopy in breast cancer surgery [Paper 1 Paper 2] and worked on a study for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on potential applications in gut dysfunction. This work involved assembling an advisory team and co-first-authoring a position paper .
More recently, at Kent we have developed a new approach which allows a computational sectioning technique, structured illumination endomicroscopy, to be used with a moving probe [Paper] and made further improvements to line-scanning endomicroscopy [Paper]. I developed and maintain PyFibreBundle, a Python package for imaging with bundles [Paper] and providing state-of-the-art performance in image reconstruction.