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A team led by Michael Kolios, a Canada Research Chair at Ryerson University, has been granted new support by the Canadian and Ontario governments. The team will receive $600,000 through the CFI Leading Edge Fund, and a further $600,000 through the Ontario Research Fund. This past spring, the first major piece of equipment — an ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging instrument, worth over $625,000 – was installed on campus in the Advanced Ultrasound Biomicroscopy Laboratory housed in the Faculty of Science.

Ryerson hosts one of the only labs in the world with the capability for ultrasound imaging and spectroscopy that can span a frequency range from kilohertz (kHz) to gigahertz (GHz). The facility — developed through CFI funding over the last 13 years — has enabled top researchers such as Kolios to analyze cancer tumours at a cellular level. The 2013 funding will take biomedical imaging, diagnosis and therapy efforts to a new level.

Kolios, a full professor in the Department of Physics, is working on the development of ultrasound techniques to detect structural tissue changes associated with cell death in cancer patients — research that is being clinically tested at Sunnybrook Hospital. Kolios led previous CFI projects, and authored the recent successful bid. He sees great potential in the next generation of imaging equipment. “Once again,” he says, “we’re in a position to advance biomedicine.”

Ultrasound “scattering”— where sound is deflected from its path by a tissue structure (such as bone) —can now be measured at a single-cell level. Insights into scattering, and the ability to analyze how it changes as a function of time, have enabled Kolios and long-time research partner Dr. Gregory Czarnota, director of the cancer research centre at Sunnybrook, to detect and quantify cell death during cancer treatment.

“Hot” fields in biomedical imaging

The recent CFI and Ontario grants bring a twist. Machines will be upgraded; and the team will be able to develop the newer fields of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and photoacoustic imaging. They will be able to study — and collect new data for — the two most important tissue elements in cancer imaging and therapy monitoring: cells and blood vessels.

Kolios’s team was the first in the world to show how OCT “speckle decorrelation” can detect cell death both in vitro and in vivo. Under the new project, an OCT instrument will be developed with a much higher frame rate acquisition to better detect cell death. The technology will also improve the analysis of cell death and vascular collapse.

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI), a newer technology, will be used by Kolios and his team to probe vascular structure and function. They hypothesize that the orientation of red blood cells and blood vessels changes the ultrasound frequency of a photoacoustic wave and that normal and tumour tissue can be differentiated based on the differences in their vascular structure.

Contrast/theranostic agents

The team’s goal is multi-faceted, as they look to advance the field in key areas. One that stands out is the use of agents. Biomedical imaging—using sound or light—sometimes requires contrast to detect structures of interest. In tissues where contrast is low, contrast agents can be added. Kolios’s team has pioneered the use of microbubbles and nanoagents to help scatter the sound or absorb light.

Agents can also deliver drugs and/or create a therapeutic physical stimulus. The double function gives rise to the term theranostic agents (therapeutic plus diagnostic). The new facility at Ryerson will enable researchers to develop theranostic agents; to probe the physics of such agents over many time and length scales, to better understand how they work.

Mapping change

Cancer research needs more data on space and time to track how cancer cells in a particular tumour location respond to treatment. New instrumentation will allow Kolios’s team to map cellular death and vascular flow. The ability to map change has major clinical potential. Kolios’s team will be one of the first in the world to use photoacoustic data to monitor changes in tumour vascularity and oxygenation status — in the process of cell death — to improve treatment. 

Overall benefits of the project

One hurdle to treatment is the gap — too common in Canada — between basic science and clinical trials. The new project will combine top researchers with early-career investigators, engineers and scientists. The primary team includes four clinician scientists with a track record in moving research into hospitals and industry.

Meanwhile, the lab at Ryerson continues to offer world-class training for students and highly qualified personnel (HQP). It has provided ground for academic collaborations, both local and international, and for industrial development. The recent funding will keep Kolios and his team — as well as other researchers, students, and developers — at the forefront of a very promising field.