Development of Next Generation of Near-Infrared Sensors for Advanced Woundcare in Healthy Ageing

The Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) is a new, multi-disciplinary, £20M research centre at the University of Edinburgh. The ACRC will lead society’s response to the grand challenge of an ageing population that is growing in size, longevity and needs through the pursuit of research intended to deliver “high‐quality data‐driven, personalised and affordable care to support the independence, dignity and quality‐of‐life of people living in their own homes and in supported care environments”

This project sits within the ACRC Academy , a dedicated Centre for Doctoral Training, co-located with the ACRC, whose students will deliver key aspects of the ACRC research agenda through a new doctoral-level research and training programme that will also equip them for careers across a wide range of pioneering and influential leadership roles in the public, private and third sectors.

The PhD with Integrated Study in Advanced Care is a novel, structured, thematic, cohort-based, programme of 48 months duration. Each PhD research project within the Academy has been devised by a supervisory team comprising academic staff from at least two of the three colleges within the University of Edinburgh. Each annual cohort of around twelve will include students with disciplinary backgrounds spanning from engineering and data science to humanities, social science, business and commerce, social work, medicine and related health and care professions. This unique level of diversity is a key attribute of our programme.

Project  

Aim

To develop the next generation of infrared sensors for woundcare through advanced monitoring of acute and chronic wounds.

Objectives

• Design and synthesize a novel class of nanomaterials with a wide and tuneabledetection range in the infrared region, up to 2000nm
• Fabricate the near infrared sensors using roll to roll compatible printing methods, such as inkjet additive manufacturing
• Investigate the application of developed sensors for the monitoring of infection and healing status of acute and chronic wounds

Description 

In this project, we aim to develop the next generation of printed infrared sensors that are non-contact, portable, and/or wearable for a range of medical conditions. Our technology, based on hybrid organic-inorganic nanomaterial systems and inkjet printing, is much cheaper and affordable in manufacturing, and more sensitive in performance compared to the standard state of the art detector technology available in the market. Adjusting the size and chemical structure of used nanomaterials, the detection range can be tuned for medicine quality control or diseases diagnosis/routine monitoring. As infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and related conditions have an enormous importance for health ageing and later life, this project aims to implement the developed sensors to woundcare through monitoring the infection and wound healing status of acute and chronic wounds. As a unique advantage of our technology, the ultrathin flexible sensors can be also potentially included in the dressing to monitor wound healing and infection status in a spatially resolved way. These signals could then be sent to a physician while the patient is at home, e.g. in home care (e.g. chronic wound (pressure ulcer or diabetic foot ulcer) or aftercare after discharge from a hospital (acute wound after operation). This project will be supervised by Dr Tayebeh Ameri and Prof Till Bachmann.

Eligibility 

Application requirements: familiar with semiconductor materials, electronic devices, and optoelectronic characterization methods; education background preferably in one of the following fields: materials science, electrical engineering, (applied) physics, or chemistry; interested in (and capable of) working with biomedical assays.

We are specifically looking for applicants who will view their cutting-edge PhD research project in the context of the overall vision of the ACRC, who are keen to contribute to tackling a societal grand challenge and who can add unique value to – and derive great benefit from – training in a cohort comprising colleagues with a very diverse range of disciplines and backgrounds. We advise prospective candidates to engage in dialogue with the named project supervisor and/or the Director of the Academy prior to submitting an application. 

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