Transforming placenta and foetal monitoring using photonics.
Project ID: 2228cd1318 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering
Lead Supervisor: Ilias Tachtsidis
Project Summary:
To inform early detection of newborn brain injury, and to support foetal health monitoring; we need objective, non-invasive, hospital-friendly, and easy to operate tools. This research aims to address the above issues by developing a new photonics instrument that will allow monitoring of placenta and foetal oxygenation/metabolic status at the bedside in the labour and maternity unity. To achieve the research aims the project will involve (i) instrumentation/software development (assembly of time-domain NIRS); (ii) computational simulations of light diffusion (Monte-Carlo light simulations) (ii) experimental testing/assessment of the instrument in the lab using optical phantoms; (iii) extended experimental testing in proof-of-principle studies in the labour/maternity unit at the University College London Hospitals (UCLH).