Tooth-mic Devices for Monitoring the Efficacy of Home-based Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Technology. Over 800,000 Australians suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA patients use twice the health resources compared to healthy people. They are 7 times more likely to cause traffic accidents; in NSW up to 43000 accidents/year are due to OSA. OSA is treatable & consequences such as strokes, diabetes & heart attacks are preventable. The standard OSA treatment is home-based Contin ....Tooth-mic Devices for Monitoring the Efficacy of Home-based Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Technology. Over 800,000 Australians suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA patients use twice the health resources compared to healthy people. They are 7 times more likely to cause traffic accidents; in NSW up to 43000 accidents/year are due to OSA. OSA is treatable & consequences such as strokes, diabetes & heart attacks are preventable. The standard OSA treatment is home-based Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy. Unfortunately, no effective technique exists to measure the efficacy of the treatment. We propose enabling solutions to this problem via developing technology centered on breathing sound analysis. The project proposes joint work with a US-company facilitating access to advanced technology highly beneficial to Australia.Read moreRead less
Non-contact Instrumentation for the Home Monitoring of Upper Airway Obstructions in Sleep. Over 800,000 Australians suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea costing billions of dollars annually to the nation. Obstructive sleep apnoea patients use twice the health resources compared to a normal person, and 7 times more likely to cause traffic accidents. In NSW alone up to 43000 accidents per year are due to obstructive sleep apnoea. Obstructive sleep apnoea is treatable and thus consequences such as ....Non-contact Instrumentation for the Home Monitoring of Upper Airway Obstructions in Sleep. Over 800,000 Australians suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea costing billions of dollars annually to the nation. Obstructive sleep apnoea patients use twice the health resources compared to a normal person, and 7 times more likely to cause traffic accidents. In NSW alone up to 43000 accidents per year are due to obstructive sleep apnoea. Obstructive sleep apnoea is treatable and thus consequences such as stroke and heart attacks are preventable. At present over 90% patients remain undiagnosed. Current diagnosis is expensive and requires hospitalization; no acceptable mass screening device exists. This project proposes an enabling technology for the population screening of obstructive sleep apnoea based on analysing snoring sounds. Outcomes of the project have the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea.Read moreRead less
Optically-driven micromachines and microtools. The use of optical forces to trap and manipulate microscopic particles has developed from a novelty into a widely used versatile research tool - optical tweezers. New advances, such as the application and optical measurement of optical torque, have been brought to the brink of practical application. We will apply these methods to the development and production of micromachines of unprecedently small size, and the development of new medical diagnosti ....Optically-driven micromachines and microtools. The use of optical forces to trap and manipulate microscopic particles has developed from a novelty into a widely used versatile research tool - optical tweezers. New advances, such as the application and optical measurement of optical torque, have been brought to the brink of practical application. We will apply these methods to the development and production of micromachines of unprecedently small size, and the development of new medical diagnostic techniques, and industrial and research tools.Read moreRead less
Cytorefractometry - a new technique for refractive index tomography of living cells. An ultrahigh-resolution bifocal optical coherence refractometry is proposed, and will result to micron-scale-resolution refractive index tomography of living cells, termed cytorefractometry. This technique represents an extension from bifocal optical coherence refractometry that has recently shown a remarkable promise for direct, several-frames-per-second, motion-artifact-free determination of refractive index ....Cytorefractometry - a new technique for refractive index tomography of living cells. An ultrahigh-resolution bifocal optical coherence refractometry is proposed, and will result to micron-scale-resolution refractive index tomography of living cells, termed cytorefractometry. This technique represents an extension from bifocal optical coherence refractometry that has recently shown a remarkable promise for direct, several-frames-per-second, motion-artifact-free determination of refractive index in turbid media, including biological tissue in vivo. We propose to apply our novel technique to study tissue calcification, a serious problem in cardiology, by making use of the refractive index contrast mechanism. Calcification of smooth muscle cells and aorta subdermal implant models will be studied aiming for prevention of calcification-associated pathologies.Read moreRead less
Intravital super-resolution imaging via Stimulated Emission Depletion microscopy (STED)-microendoscopy. We will develop a new technology to enable the imaging of sub-cellular structures within a biological specimen, with super-resolution. This intravital super-resolution imaging technology will build off world leading techniques to image objects with super-resolution and to perform this within a specimen, with minimal invasion. The broad ramifications of this technology apply to biology, medical ....Intravital super-resolution imaging via Stimulated Emission Depletion microscopy (STED)-microendoscopy. We will develop a new technology to enable the imaging of sub-cellular structures within a biological specimen, with super-resolution. This intravital super-resolution imaging technology will build off world leading techniques to image objects with super-resolution and to perform this within a specimen, with minimal invasion. The broad ramifications of this technology apply to biology, medical science, imaging and sensing. Important applications include the early detection of debilitating diseases and the advancement of understanding of cellular biology. This research will raise Australia's profile as a world leader in science and technology, building on our emerging presence in the biophysical sciences.Read moreRead less