Optical theragnostics: developing dedicated instruments to concurrently see and treat lesions

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The past decades have witnessed a rapid evolution of optical technologies applied to medical imaging and laser surgery. This proposal brings together the fields of biophotonics, lasers and fiber optics towards the development of new devices enabling the integration of imaging and therapy within a single fiber optics probe for simultaneous diagnosis and treatment of cancers: a field called theragnostics. ***Since its first occurrence in the scientific literature, the imaging modality called optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become the standard of diagnosis for ophthalmic diseases and is finding many new applications in health sciences such as the detection of cardiovascular and precancerous lesions. The rapidly growing interest in OCT stems from its unique ability to visualize tissues non-invasively with a resolution of 10 microns and at depths of up to 3mm, which translates into the potential of skipping the biopsy stage for on-the-spot diagnosis. The core technologies behind OCT (i.e. lasers and fiber optics) allow bridging the current gap existing between diagnosis and treatment. Using my laboratory's combined expertise of laser--tissue interactions, fiber optics, fiber laser design, and optical image processing, I propose to set the cornerstone towards single fiber OCT-monitored laser tissue coagulation and ablation. In other words, I propose to develop a see-and-treat tool based on novel fiber optics and lasers.***Laser delivery to inner organs is limited by the type of optics being used. For coherent imaging, such as OCT, single mode fibers are used, while for therapy, multimode fibers are required to support high power densities. I plan to leverage from the technology my laboratory developed, the double clad fiber (DCF) coupler, to create the perfect instrument for concurrent OCT imaging, through the core of the DCF, and laser therapy, through the surrounding inner cladding of the same DCF. In addition to creating the instrument, image-processing tools will be refined to automate the laser therapy process. As energy is converted to heat at the nanosecond regime (or faster), I will use properties of OCT images known as speckle to automatically dictate when treatment should stop, thus avoiding key anatomical structures faster than the eye can see.***This program has the potential to train several engineering students in a multidisciplinary environment, and to introduce them to the translation of the techniques to the clinical suite and to industrial partners. My trainees evolve in a gender-balanced, multi-cultural environment. They rapidly become citizen of the international community of biomedical optics scientists through publications in top-tier journals, participation to international conferences and collaborations. As a group, we focus on improving the well-being of Canadians though technology transfer to industry and the development of innovative theragnostic techniques.