Office of Research Services (ORS)

Research Chairs: Victor Yang

Canada Research Chair in Bioengineering and Biophotonics

Ryerson University
Tier 2 - January 1, 2008
Natural Sciences and Engineering
416-803-9320
yangv@ee.ryerson.ca
  
Website
http://www.ryerson.ca/physics/people/faculty/yang.html

Research involves
Developing advanced fibre-optical probes to image living tissue microstructure and microcirculation.

Research relevance
Leading to the development of new diagnostic imaging and therapeutic monitoring tools for minimally invasive procedures.

Getting a Closer Look at Cancer
Every day Dr. Victor Yang, Canada Research Chair in Bioengineering and Biophotonics, looks at the world at a level most of us never will. Using an optical fibre less than one hundredth of an inch across, Yang can image the blood flow in capillaries newly created by cancer cells or watch the movement of one single red blood cell at a time.

“The dream is to be able to do this not only in research labs, but also in the operating room for individual patients,” says Yang, who is an engineer, a physicist and medical doctor.

Cancerous tissues form new and abnormal blood vessels, which are different from normal tissue. By applying optical fibre and laser technology from the telecommunication industry, Yang’s research team at Ryerson University is developing new techniques for imaging normal and cancerous tissues by observing this microvasculature.

When light is reflected off moving red blood cells, its colour changes ever so slightly—a shift that can then be detected by the imaging devices built in Yang’s lab.

“Just like how police officers detect your car’s speed using radar,” explains Yang, “except a typical car moves more than one million times faster than the red blood cell, and the patient’s own breathing motion can be 10 times faster than the blood flow.”

Yang hopes his research and collaborative work with the University Health Network, St. Michael’s Hospital, and Sunnybrook Health Science Centre will not only make it possible to image cancer vasculature, but will also guide treatment to kill these abnormal vessels.