Development of Advanced Instrumentaion for Body Composition Analysis

身体成分分析X射线实验室在麦克马斯特大学有一个新的位置和一个新装修的空间。 实验室的使命以及我本人和我的HQP团队开展的工作旨在将电磁辐射应用于解决卫生部门明确定义的问题。 我们的主要任务是设计，开发，测试和优化仪器，可用于帮助解决真实的患者和医疗保健提供者正在经历的问题。 该实验室目前拥有三个X射线分析系统。 其中两个系统是由我和我的团队在过去5年的监督下设计的，这是我在上一次NSERC发现申请中提出的。 在过去的两年中，我们还成功开发了由CFI奖资助的光谱仪器。 在未来五年内，这些实验室系统将得到进一步开发，并用于解决外科肿瘤学中的边缘检测问题，重点是乳腺癌，但也适用于其他重要器官，如脑和肺。 这种手术边缘检测系统将对患者和外科医生大有裨益，我们与圣约瑟夫医院和汉密尔顿的Juravinski癌症中心的社区临床合作伙伴密切合作。 市售的手持式便携式X射线分析装置已被用于评估皮肤中的铁浓度，作为全身铁负荷的标志。我目前正在以前工作的基础上，利用放射性核素源开发一种类似的仪器。 目的是开发和使用便携式设备来测量患有铁过载或缺铁引起的病症的患者的皮肤中的铁浓度。 我的一位HQP最近发表的工作清楚地表明了皮肤铁水平与动物研究中关键器官水平之间的相关性。 一名学生最近完成的进一步研究表明，人类皮肤和肝脏铁水平之间存在很强的相关性。 这项工作是与麦克马斯特健康科学的同事合作进行的，他们看到了能够在临床上通过快速非侵入性测量来评估铁水平的巨大好处。 我的团队还将在身体成分评估方面开展进一步的基础研究。我们将继续使用高强度，高空间分辨率的同步加速器光源的工作。 我目前正在与德克萨斯大学和哈佛医学院合作，研究前列腺癌中金属的水平和分布，以及使用磁共振成像检测前列腺癌的相关应用。 这项持续的NSE工作将侧重于开发对人类健康具有巨大价值的尖端技术和实验工作，并培养下一代加拿大科学家，他们将经历一个公平，多样性和包容性的环境。

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.