About Us

UBAPHODESA is a project funded by an ITN Marie Curie grant from EU (grant number 607627). The purpose is to investigate the usability of supercontinuum light sources in medical imaging technology, such as optical coherence tomography or photoacoustic microscopy.

It is a collaboration of the Applied Optics Group headed by Prof. Dr. Adrian Podoleanu from the University of Kent (UK) and our industrial partner NKT Photonics A/S (Denmark).

In total 5 early stage researchers are working in this project and will spend half their time in the UK and half in Denmark.

 

What do we do?

Our research comprises two parts: (1) novel broadband manipulation of light for innovative sources from UV to infrared, as well as (2) the development of innovative devices capable of operating within such large optical bandwidth and their applications.

We have determined that one particular application is the optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging. Although the field is relatively new, commercial exploitation of supercontinuum (SC) principles in the field of OCT has steadily progressed in the last 5 years. However, due to limited experience in the laser industry in developing such an imaging tool, we believe the involvement of academic coordinator, particularly the leader of the field in OCT, such as Podoleanu’s Applied Optics Group can greatly benefit our research.

 

What we promise?

When we started UBAPHODESA, we have a vision to strenghten the exisiting development of technologies in optics sources for clinical applications by the following approaches:

1. Optimise integration of supercontinuum with broadband components

2. Characterisation of supercontinuum in order to understand noise in a variety of broadband optical set-ups and mitigate its effect in applications

3. Apply the principles evaluated above in applications, such as:

a) assembly of high resolution, low noise OCT imaging technology for the eye and OCT endoscopy;

b) assembly of systems to exploit the broadband of supercontinuum in spectroscopy and nonlinear optics applications;

c) evaluate the potential of photo acoustics in adding diagnostic contrast (and be a suitable technology in the clinic)

4. Establish a link between the source performance and the clinical setting, in order to clarify how to improve diagnostic contrast and hence diagnostic quality and clinical acceptance.

 

What else is going on?

In UBAPHODESA, we do not only indulge ourselves in research at laboratories, we also actively engage in outreach activities to the public via lectures and demonstation, as well as over the year professional conferences and technical exhibitions to present our new findings to other scientists and industries.

You can read more of our activities in events and research news page.

The 5 reseachers also constantly learning new techniques through courses and workshops. The first such course is the post masters level taught modules in Biomedical Optics (PH800) organised by the University of Kent.

A complete overview of UBAPHODESA project can be found here (external link to European Commission site).