Washington University (WashU) has been awarded up to $20 million as part of a contract with the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to create a portable optical coherence tomography (OCT)
Give me the rundown on ARPA-H first.
The research funding agency was established in 2022 as an independent entity of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with a focus on supporting the development of high-impact research for biomedical and health breakthroughs.
The goal: to deliver “transformative, sustainable, and equitable health solutions for everyone” by advancing and leveraging research for real world impact.
And this contact?
As the first of its kind to be awarded to WashU, the up-to-$20 million contract stems from ARPA-H’s call for proposal submissions for “unconventional approaches to improving health outcomes across patient populations, communities, diseases and health conditions through breakthrough research and technological advancements.”
Gotcha. Now what exactly is this OCT system?
In development by Chao Zhou, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, the portable OCT system would be based on a unique technology—photonic integrated circuits (PC) and custom-designed electronic integrated circuits—complete with the potential to provide advanced eye screening to more patients.
Talk about that technology.
The system will incorporate components of another technology Zhou and researchers previously developed in 2020: the space-division multiplexing OCT (SDM-OCT).
This light-splitting technique simultaneously captures multiple high-definition OCT images via a single detector at a speed that is 10x faster than traditional screenings, according to a feasibility study published in Photonics Research.
How will this technology be integrated?
Zhou and a team of collaborators intend to “assemble the components in a photonic chip using advancements in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes used in the semiconductor industry,” according to WashU.
The intended result: streamlined manufacturing and lower costs (see below).
To note, once the system is assembled, the researchers plan to conduct clinical studies using the technology on both adult and pediatric patients.
So how would this portable system compare to traditional systems?
Standard OCT systems can be expensive, bulky, limited by scan-speed and field-of-view, as well as require extensive assembly and calibration.
In comparison, this portable OCT system would be designed to:
- Weigh just a few pounds
- Capture high-resolution 3D retina scans in less than 1 second
- Speed is 50x faster
- Cost a fraction of standard OCT system prices
- Create an integrated image acquisition and signal processing engine
According to Zhou: “The integration of photonic and electronic integrated circuits simplifies the assembly process and lowers production costs, making OCT more accessible to a wider range of health-care facilities and patients.”
What other applications could it be used in?
Most notably:
- Cardiology
- Dermatology
- Dentistry
- Endoscopy
- Urology
So who else will be involved in this development?
- Shu-Wei Huang, assistant professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering and of biomedical engineering;University of Colorado Boulder
- Aravind Nagulu, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering; McKelvey School of Engineering;
- Rithwick Rajagopal, MD, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences; Washington University School of Medicine
- Margaret Reynolds, MD, assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences; Washington University School of Medicine
- Lan Yang, the Edwin H. & Florence G. Skinner Professor of electrical and systems engineering; McKelvey School of Engineering.
The researchers are also working with WashU’s Office of Technology Management (on patent applications for improved design) as well as the ARPA-H Project Accelerator Transition Innovation Office and FDA for potential regulatory considerations.
And how long will it take?
According to WashU, the project is slated to take 5 years, after which the researcher team “expects to have developed photonic and electronic chips and portable PIC-OCT prototypes specifically for ophthalmic imaging.”