Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/T17830/01
Title:	Widefield high resolution microscopy: towards commercialisation
Principal Investigator:	Somekh, Professor M
Other Investigators:	See, Dr C
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	University of Nottingham
Department:	Sch of Electrical and Electronic Eng
Organisation:	University of Nottingham
Scheme:	Follow on Fund (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 February 2005	Ends:	31 October 2005	Value (£):	28,378
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Cells
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Chemicals Healthcare
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The examination of surfaces is increasingly important. The surface of almost any structure is the gateway between itself and the rest of the world. This is perhaps most vividly illustrated in the cell membrane. Cells are surrounded by membranes, which are far more sophisticated than mere containers! Indeed there is rapidly growing knowledge of the subtle ways in which the cell membrane controls cellular behaviour, small changes in conformation and variation of the electrical potential of the membrane are now thought to be major factors in whether a cell communicates with the outside world and also how it becomes infected. Imaging surface is not restricted to cell membranes other applications include receptor binding assays, gene chips multianalyte analysis and away from biology studies of surface chemistry and corrosion.High resolution and sensitive mapping of the surfaces are thus important and relatively undeveloped areas of microscopy. If we want to image surface it would seem reasonable to use surface waves, a class of which is surface plasmons, to probe the properties of the surface. This is especially attractive as not surprisingly these waves are particularly sensitive to the properties of surfaces. The problem lies in the fact that until very recently the lateral resolution achievable when imaging using these waves has been very poor. However, in recent work we have shown how this limit may be overcome. The EPSRC project from which this project is based has shown high resolution surface plasmon Imaging without scanning thus greatly improving the usability of the instruments.The present follow on proposal aims to ensure that the developments addressed in the original proposal are more widely taken up by users - by rapidly gaining results which will allow us to engage commercial partners who will then take the technology to market. This involves essentially a two-fold approach simplifying the optical set-up using a novel imaging approach and using a solid immersion lens which offers advantages in cost and ultimately performance.
Key Findings
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Organisation Website:	http://www.nottingham.ac.uk