Challenge-Led, Values-Based Interdisciplinary Infrastructure for Optical Probes, Devices, and Drugs

The Translational Healthcare Technologies (THT) group has evolved over the last decade to develop a translational infrastructure that is challenge-led with people focused values and embedded patient engagement. The THT champions team science and is developing and translating into patient cohorts, cutting edge tools to delineate pathophysiology with a focus on pulmonary and ocular applications. This paper describes the infrastructure within Edinburgh BioQuarter and highlights some studies where we have developed chemical compounds to characterise lung pathologies such as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer. We describe the bench-to-bedside assessment of these compounds for gram-negative bacterial detection, neutrophil activation, matrix metalloproteinase (in fibrosis) detection and pre-clinical targets including fibroblast activation protein (cancer detection), T cell activity and bacterial detection. We also describe the development of two next generation fibre-based imaging technologies: a LED based tri-colour imaging system and a dual channel fluorescence lifetime imaging system. Using the THT infrastructure, these systems and chemical probes are now entering clinical trials in an academic institute.