Improving imaging technology to allow for early diagnosis and intervention to prevent severe visual impairments
About
As the US population ages, and with the increasing prevalence of obesity and related chronic health problems that affect the eye, debilitating eye disease poses a substantial medical and cost concern. With early diagnosis and appropriate management, > 90% of severe vision loss may be prevented. Imaging modalities that excel at screening, early diagnosis, staging, and tracking treatment response, and can do so safely, quickly, and inexpensively are highly valued by ophthalmologists. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)-based technologies have revolutionized eye disease diagnosis, along with demonstrating clinical potential across a myriad of other areas – including cardiology, urology, dentistry, and more. However, high cost and complex assembly of current systems limit their widespread adoption and hamper their broad implementation. This project will develop next-generation OCT systems based on photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and custom-designed electronic integrated circuits (ICs). By leveraging the latest advances in the nanofabrication of photonic and electronic ICs, acquisition speeds 50 times faster than the current standard will be achieved alongside immense decreases in the OCT system footprint (i.e., readily employable at walk-in clinics) and unprecedented reductions in manufacturing cost that will facilitate community-wide accessibility. Pediatric patients will especially benefit from the shorter scan times. Altogether, by enhancing patient treatment and adherence to repetitive testing, PIC-OCT will substantially reduce vision loss and its medical and societal costs.
This project is a collaboration between the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Systems Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine and Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Funding comes from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
Faculty
Chao Zhou, PhD
Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis
Shu-Wei Huang, PhD
Assistant Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder
Aravind Nagulu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Electrical & Systems Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis
Rithwick Rajagopal, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology And Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine
Margaret Reynolds, MD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine
Lan Yang, PhD
Edwin H. & Florence G. Skinner Professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis
News
WashU awarded up to $20 million to develop high-tech imaging technology (Links to an external site)
ARPA-H announces award for compact, affordable eye imaging device (Links to an external site)
