Date published: 27/09/18
Medical imaging blood perfusion
- Name: Laura Galindo-Blanco
- Current Organisation: University of York
In May, Translate opened its summer student project scheme to support small medical technology development projects in the Leeds City Region. The scheme proved to be a massive success and 26 unique projects were funded. Learn more about their work in this blog.
My name is Laura Galindo and I am fascinated by computational physics; I am particularly keen to see how computational techniques are implemented in the real world. This is why I am interested in finding out more about smartphone cameras and how they can be used in medical imaging. I am a Masters student at the University of Granada, Spain, where I have already done some computational projects. My inspiration comes from my father, who is a computer scientist at the University of Cadiz, Spain. His research group has experience in developing software connected with cameras and Raspberry Pi, and they have developed multiple applications for companies in different fields, such as robotics, artificial vision, machine learning. This provides an excellent background to what I will be doing at York.
The specific goal of my summer project is to develop a simple system for imaging blood perfusion using the fluorophore ICG. I will work on image acquistion and learn how to interface a smartphone camera to a computer. I will then establish the best LED illumination and employ excitation and emission filters to maximise the signal quality. We are working with clinicians at York Hospital who would like to use this technology on the ward, e.g. to check the progress of wound healing, or in the operating theatre, to guide operations. Naturally, turning this vision into reality will be a much larger project, but my work over the summer will help us establish the feasibility of the idea and act as a pilot. I am very excited to apply my expertise to the development of new medical technologies that may help save lives in the future.
