"Coherent fibre bundle-based fluorescence imaging of the lung" & "Time-resolved single photon spectroscopy for optical fibre-based sensing in the distal lung”

Helen Parker - “Coherent fibre bundle-based fluorescence imaging of the lung”

Abstract:
Fibre-based imaging systems can be used to visualise pathology in the lung, providing a clinician with the information they require to augment disease understanding for patients in intensive care. I will discuss optimisation of coherent fibre-bundles for endomicroscopy, which are able to transmit images from within the lung in real-time, and I will discuss a method for characterising coherent fibre bundles with the aim of using the findings to inform image processing algorithms. Finally, I will present a spectral endomicroscopy system, designed to highlight differences between similar spectral sources, and show results from a whole human lung model instilled with bacteria.

Katjana Ehrlich - "Time-resolved single photon spectroscopy for optical fibre-based sensing in the distal lung”

Abstract
There is an unmet need for fast, accurate and less invasive diagnostic methods for lung diseases, which can be tackled by the development of minimally invasive tissue interrogation methods. enabled by combining optical fibres with single photon detector technologies.
I will present an miniaturised single fibre probe utilising time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) spectroscopy for endoscopic sensing in size restricted regions such as the alveolar space of the distal lung. Fibre-based time-resolved spectroscopy is an extremely versatile technique and we have applied it to a variety of applications in the field of Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy, both label-free and using custom biomarkers. These application include pH sensing, distinguish between cancerous and normal tissue and bacterial detection.