IBEC Seminar. Prof. Brendan Kennedy
Divendres, juny 13 @ 10:00 am–11:00 am
Optical coherence elastography: imaging cell and tissue mechanics on the micro-scale
Professor Brendan Kennedy. Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Western Australia. Group Leader, BRITElab, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Western Australia. Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland
Abstract: As the importance of mechanical properties in the origin and progression of disease becomes ever clearer, new elastography tools are required to map cell and tissue mechanics on the micro-scale. Elastography has been developed over a wide range of spatial scales, from the cellular, for example, using atomic force microscopy, through to the whole organ, using ultrasound elastography and magnetic resonance elastography. However, existing techniques are not capable of probing tissue mechanical properties on the intermediate micro- to milli-scale: a scale critical in the onset and progression of many diseases. Optical coherence elastography (OCE) aims to bridge the scale gap in elastography techniques. Through the utilization of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to measure tissue motion, OCE is endowed with spatial resolution as high as 1-10 mm, much higher than is possible using ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging, and a sensitivity to tissue displacement on the nanometer-scale, providing the prospect to detect much finer changes in mechanical properties.
In this talk, I will describe methods we have developed at The University of Western Australia and Nicolaus Copernicus University to quantify tissue elasticity, ranging from mechanical loading methods to signal processing techniques to map the full strain tensor. I will focus on main two application areas. Firstly, the application of OCE to tumour margin assessment in breast cancer, where we have developed both ex vivo and in vivo OCE methods to detect tumour during surgery to enable surgeons to more accurately remove cancer. Secondly, in mechanobiology, I will describe the development of optical coherence microscopy-based elastography for imaging sub-cellular mechanics in three dimensions. I will describe a study we performed on tumour cell spheroids that reveals distinct stiffness in non-metastatic and metastatic spheroids embedded in both soft and stiff hydrogels.
Short Bio: Prof. Brendan Kennedy is Professor in the School of Engineering at The University of Western Australia (UWA) and is Head of BRITElab at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, also in Western Australia. He is currently Visiting Professor in the Institute of Physics at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. Prof. Kennedy received his PhD from Dublin City University, Ireland, in 2006. His doctoral thesis focussed on the use of nonlinear polarization rotation in semiconductor optical amplifiers for all-optical switching. His current research focusses on the development of optical coherence tomography and optical elastography and their application in a range of fields, particularly in surgery, mechanobiology and tissue engineering. He has published 1 book, 15 book chapters and >100 peer-reviewed journal papers. Prof. Kennedy has delivered >30 invited talks at national and international conferences. He has been Principal Investigator on competitive research funding of >€12 million and industry-sponsored research contracts of >€3 million. His work has been cited >8,000 times and he has a H-index of 39 (source: Google Scholar). He has won a number of awards and recognitions, including being elected as Optica Fellow in 2025. Prof. Kennedy is co-founder of OncoRes Medical, a medical device company developing OCE for use in surgery. He served as Chief Scientific Officer at OncoRes from 2017 to 2021. OncoRes has received >€30 million in venture capital funding and currently employs >40 people. In 2021, the company received the breakthrough designation from the US Food and Drugs Administration. Prof. Kennedy holds >40 granted patents from 8 patent families.
