Development of a Raman micro-spectroscopy flow cell module

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Tornado Spectral Systems (Toronto, ON) was founded to invent and commercialize novel optical technologiesfor applications in the medical and industrial sectors. Their primary optical method is a technique called Ramanspectroscopy, which uses a laser beam to perform non-destructive real-time measurements of chemicalmixtures. Tornado's proprietary optical designs enable their Raman analyzers to be 10x to 30x more powerfulthan the current state of the art, so quantitative Raman measurements can be made more quickly, moresensitively, or more accurately than with conventional optical configurations. However, Tornado's technologyis only one part of the solution in the case of analysis of blood samples. Due to its chemical and cellularstructure, blood absorbs much of the laser energy rather than scattering the wavelength-shifted Raman photonswhich provide chemical information. This fact has two main implications: (1) the Raman signal from bloodwill be weaker than for most other types of chemical samples, and (2) the incident laser power must be keptlow to avoid heating and damaging the blood sample, and lower laser power produces even weaker Ramansignal. Since blood analysis is often looking for very subtle changes in the Raman spectrum, both of thesefactors can severely limit the applicability of Raman techniques. In collaboration with Tornado SpectralSystems, the current proposal aims to overcome these limitations and focuses on the development of a novelflow cell module for the translation of Raman spectroscopy to blood analysis. The duration of the project willbe six months and this work will serve as the foundation for future grant applications.