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Add-on module for optical coherence tomography with en-face view option

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AMEFOCT (Add-on module for optical coherence tomography with en-face view option)

Reporting period: 2015-11-01 to 2017-04-30

The activity lead to assembly of compact ready to use, fully functional systems and of software packages to be tested by collaborators. These are based on the Master Slave method invented by the PI during the 4th year of the Advanced ERC programme 249889, “Combined time domain and spectral domain coherence gating for imaging and biosensing”, 2010-2015.

Prior to becoming commercial products, the team realised that the programs developed should be first installed and tested on other people's PCs.

Kent Innovation and Enterprise have devised a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA). Based on the MTA, the software program was installed remotely on PCs at two groups performing OCT research: NKT Denmark (a camera based program) and University of Arad, Romania (a swept source based program). The two different approaches allow testing the novel program on the two most spread OCT technologies.
The two groups are using the programs and results are still compiled together. Three more groups have manifested interest in testing the programs and discussions are under way on equipping them with the software.
This is a long process and could not be finalised during the lifetime of the project. However feedback from these users will feed directly into the development of the packages with potential to become commercial products later.

Pitch presentation: Semifinalist of the start-up challenge, "Real time multiple OCT slicer", Photonics West 2017, San Francisco, 5 minutes pitch, 31 Jan. 2017.

Patent application and office actions

1. Patent application in the US: A. Podoleanu, S. Rivet, A. Bradu, M. Maria, Master Slave Interferometry and Apparatus and Method for Master Slave Optical Coherence Tomography with any Number of Sampled Depths, 28 October 2015, Patent application number 1519055.6 modified to become a US Application, 26 October 2016 No.:15/334,648.
During the life of the grant, office actions for two patents:
2. The main patent of the Master Slave OCT technology: A. Podoleanu, A. Bradu, Method and Apparatus for Processing the Signal in Spectral Domain Interferometry and Method and Apparatus for Spectral Optical Domain Coherence Tomography, , with prosecution in US, Europe and Japan:
Awarded in US: US9383187 B2, Pub. Date: 07/05/2016, WO/2014/068323, 1200091209, PCT/GB2013/052854, 1/11/2013GB Intellectual Property Office, No. 1312629.7 15/7/2013, GB Intellectual Property Office, No. 1304388.0 12th March 2013, GB Intellectual Property Office, 1219761.2 2nd Nov. 2012, office action.
3. Collateral patent for a fast laser for Master Slave OCT: A. Podoleanu, R.F. Stancu, Akinetic swept laser apparatus and method for fast sweeping of the same UK Patent application No. 1501502.7 29/01/2015, SKG/BM/P44859US, 20 Oct 2015, USA, USA20160226215, office action.

Peer reviewed paper
A first paper, that incorporates the Master Slave method into polarisation sensitive OCT measurements: S. Rivet, M. J. Marques, A. Bradu, A. Podoleanu, Passive optical module for polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography systems, Opt. Express 25, 14533-14544 (2017).

Invited as a lecturer, fully supported
1. Optical Coherence Tomography, 4 hours lectures, Dental Medicine Department, “Victor Babes” Medicine and Pharmacy University of Timisoara, Romania, Master Programme, 24 Febr. 2017;
2. Optical Coherence Tomography, 4 hours lectures, Biophotonics and Imaging Graduate Summer School, Galway, Ireland, 5-9 Sept. 2016;
3. Optical Coherence Tomography, 30/06/2016 – 8/7/2016, 2 July 2016, Summer School Lasers in Medicine and Life Sciences 2016, Szeged, Hungary, ELITeam'- Establishment of the ELI Institute at the University of Szeged: foundation of interdisciplinary research in the field of lasers and their applications,TÁMOP-4.2.2.D-15/1/KONV-2015-0024 project. Hungarian Government, EU European Social Fund;

Partially supported invited presentation at an international conference
4. Progress in the technologies of ‘En-face’ OCT and of 3D visualisation for clinical imaging, Invited, Fourth International Congress on OCT Angiography and Advances in OCT, 16-17 Dec. 2016, Rome;

Seminar in the UK
5. Optical coherence tomography, seminar, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, 6 May 2016

National conference participation, peer reviewed submissions
6. M. J. Marques, A. Bradu, S. Rivet, R. Cernat, N. Israelsen, D. Garway-Heath, P. Keane, T. Tatla, R. Rajendram, A. Podoleanu, Versatile hand-held Master-Slave optical coherence tomography system for clinical diagnosis, Laser and Aesthetics Conference, 35th Annual Conference of the British Medical Laser Association, Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester,
Session 13 - Biophotonics and Diagnostics, 17-19 May 2017, SEL28BMLA, Oral.

4 more communications scheduled after the end of the project, but within the reporting period:
International conference participation, peer reviewed submissions
7. M.J. Marques, S. Rivet, A. Bradu, A. Podoleanu, Novel software package to facilitate operation of any spectral (Fourier) OCT system, European Conferences on Biomedical Optics (ECBO), 25 - 29 June 2017, Messe Munich, Munich, Germany, ETu4B.3 29/06/2017, Oral.

8. S. Caujolle, A. Unterhuber, T. Feuchter, A. Podoleanu, R. M. Werkmeister, Comparison between a Supercontinuum Source and a Titanium Sapphire laser in achieving ultra-high resolution Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT), European Conferences on Biomedical Optics (ECBO), 25 - 29 June 2017, Messe Munich, Munich, Germany, ETu1B.4 29/06/2017, Oral.

9. A. Bradu, R. Cernat, N. Israelsen, O. Bang, S. Rivet, P. Keane, D. David-Garway Heath, R.Rajendram A.G. Podoleanu, Master/slave: a better tool for Gabor filtering optical coherence tomography imaging instruments European Conferences on Biomedical Optics (ECBO), 25 - 29 June 2017, Messe Munich, Munich, Germany, ETh2A.3 Oral.

10. M. Bondu, M. Denninger, P. Moselund, A.G.Podoleanu Using a single supercontinuum source for visible multispectral photoacoustic microscopy and 1300 nm optical coherence tomography, European Conferences on Biomedical Optics (ECBO), 25 - 29 June 2017, Messe Munich, Munich, Germany, EW1C.4 Oral.