CONTRAST facility: clinical coherent Raman scattering facility

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The UK has a rich and vibrant Raman spectroscopy community, which is at the forefront of developments showing that the technique holds the key to the next generation of enabling healthcare technologies. Raman spectroscopy is an established analytical technique that derives information regarding chemical composition based on the vibrational frequency of the chemical bonds within a sample. Due to its unique 'optical fingerprinting' capability, Raman spectroscopy has the potential to play a significant role in healthcare including: histopathology, cytology, biopsy targeting, surgical targets, treatment monitoring and drug studies. However, for many healthcare applications Raman scattering when compared with optical techniques that rely on labelling, has the drawback of being too weak for real-time imaging. Coherent Raman scattering (CRS), is an alternative approach that uses extremely short (approximately one thousandth of one billionth of a second in duration) pulses of lasers to exploit to boost the weak molecular vibrational signals to a level that is compatible with real-time imaging of tissues; a capability that holds the key to the next generation of diagnostic technologies and the development of targeted therapies. We propose to establish a CRS user facility at Exeter that will allow leading UK researchers to develop novel Healthcare Technologies based on this emerging technology.