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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/P030017/1
Title: Resonant and shaped photonics for understanding the physical and biomedical world
Principal Investigator: Dholakia, Professor K
Other Investigators:
Gather, Professor M Krauss, Professor T Gunn-Moore, Professor FJ
Johnson, Professor SD
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Almac Group Ltd Brno Institute of Scientific Instruments
Grintech IP Group Plc Massachusetts General Hospital
Max Planck Institutes Philips York Hospital NHS Trust
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Organisation: University of St Andrews
Scheme: Programme Grants
Starts: 01 August 2017 Ends: 31 December 2022 Value (£): 5,023,462
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Biophysics Lasers & Optics
Light-Matter Interactions
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare R&D
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
19 Apr 2017 Programme Grant Interviews - 20 April 2017 (Physical Sciences) Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Light has been used for centuries to image the world around us, and continues to provide profound insights across physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and medicine. However, what are the limits of light as a measurement tool? For example, we can use light to image single bacteria, but can we also use light to trap a single bacterium, identify the bacterial strain and assess its susceptibility to antibiotics? How can we image over multiple length scales, from single cells to multiple cellular tissue, in order to comprehensively map all the neuronal connections in the brain? Can we use a combination of resonance with the wave nature and momentum of light to measure the forces associated with the natural and stimulated motion of a single neuronal cell, or even the extremely small forces associated with phenomena at the classical-quantum interface?

This proposal aims to answer these questions by exploring new and innovative ways in which we can use light to measure the natural world. This research builds on our recent advances in photonics - the science of generating, controlling and detecting light - and in particular will exploit resonant structures and shaped light. These provide us with tools for controlling the interaction of light and matter with exquisite sensitivity and accuracy. We will run three research strands in parallel and by combining their outputs, we aim to address major Global Challenges in antimicrobial resistance, neurodegenerative disease, multimodal functional imaging and next generation force, torque and microrheology.

Our work is supported by a suite of UK and International project partners (both academic and industry) who are enthused to work with us and have committed over £0.5M in kind to the programme.
Key Findings
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Organisation Website: http://www.st-and.ac.uk