Development of Advanced Instrumentaion for Body Composition Analysis

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The X-ray Laboratory for Body Composition Analysis, has a new location and a newly refurbished space at McMaster University. The mission of the laboratory and the work carried out by myself and my HQP team is aimed at using electromagnetic radiation in applications that address well defined problems in the health sector. Our primary task is to design, develop, test and optimize instrumentation that can be used to help solve problems real patients and health care providers are experiencing. The laboratory presently contains three X-Ray analysis systems. Two of these systems were designed by myself and the team working under my supervision over the past 5 years as proposed in my last NSERC discovery application. Over the last two years we have also developed optical spectroscopy instrumentation funded by a successful CFI award. Over the period of the next five years, these laboratory systems will be further developed and used to solve the problem of margin detection in surgical oncology, focusing on breast cancer but with applications for other important organs e.g. brain and lung. This surgical margin detection system will be of great benefit to patients and surgeons and we work very closely with our community clinical partners at St. Josephs Hospital and the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton. A commercially available handheld portable X-Ray analysis device has been used to assess iron concentrations in skin as a marker for total body iron burden. I am currently working on developing a similar instrument using a radionuclide source based on this previous work. The aim is to develop and use a portable device to measure the iron concentrations in the skin of patients suffering from conditions resulting from iron overload or iron deficiency. Recent published work by one of my HQP has clearly shown a correlation between skin iron levels and critical organ levels in animal studies. Further work recently completed by a student has shown a strong correlation between skin and liver iron levels in humans. This work is a collaboration with colleagues in the Health Sciences at McMaster, who see the huge benefit of being able to assess iron levels with a quick non-invasive measurement in the clinic. My team will also carry out further fundamental research in the assessment of body composition. We will continue work using high intensity, high spatial resolution synchrotron light sources. I am currently working in a collaboration with the University of Texas and Harvard Medical School to examine the levels and distribution of metals in prostate cancer and the associated applications this can have with prostate cancer detection using magnetic resonance imaging. This continuing NSE work will focus on developing cutting edge technologies and experimental work that will have immense value to human health and train the next generation of Canadian scientists that will have experienced an environment of equity, diversity and inclusion.