This project area is available for students starting in September 2022 and is suitable for a 3-year PhD in physics. The project does not currently have funding attached, students must be able to fund the fees and their living costs by applying for a suitable scholarship, see https://www.kent.ac.uk/scholarships/postgraduate, or through some another source of funds. Current information on fees is available here.
Changes in tissue elasticity are generally correlated with pathological* phenomena. Many cancers, appear as extremely hard nodules which are results of increased cell density. Other diseases involve fatty and/or collagenous deposits which change tissue elasticity. However, in many cases, the small size of the pathological lesion and/or its location deep in the body preclude its detection and evaluation. A plethora of cancer diagnosis methods exist, but most of them require invasive biopsies. These can be time-consuming and cause discomfort to the patient. In contrast, the optical methods are capable of imaging the tissue at the micrometre scale, while optical coherence tomography can provide biopsy without tissue excision. The proposed project is aiming to develop a medical imaging tool, able to produce an image of what tissue ‘feels’ like by evaluating its elastic properties so differentiation between healthy and diseased tissue is possible, but without touch. The project will involve research activities such as:
- Signal processing to estimate strain. The technique of elastography will be implemented by placing the tissue under mechanical load and the resulting displacements evaluated using state of the art optical coherence tomography instruments available within the AOG. You will be exploring new algorithms to improve the strain estimation and to remove artefacts from images.
- Design and implementation of a handheld probe. You will be developing a handheld probe imaging device to allow clinicians to perform elastography measurements on patients. This involves the design of the probe and loading mechanism. The loading mechanism will have to be synchronised with the image acquisition.
The research activities involved in this project will happen at the boundaries of several disciplines such as optics, mechanical systems, imaging, material science, software, medical devices, clinical medicine, etc., hence a fantastic opportunity for you to gain valuable transferable skills. However, it is not a prerequisite for you to be experienced in these fields to undertake the project as you will be given the opportunity to learn these skills during the project. AOG has a team ethos and you will be actively encouraged to work as part of a team.
*pathological = any deviation from a healthy, normal condition
There is no deadline for the project – applicants will be assessed on a rolling basis – although please note any separate deadlines for scholarships or funding. The candidates must be in place in September 2022. Potential applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Adrian Bradu for informal discussions before applying.