Patrick Cozzone
Government Director
Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC),
Company for Science, Expertise and Analysis (A*STAR)
Singapore
AsianScientist (Jan. 8, 2021) – On the flip of the 20th century, the first-ever Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to an obscure physicist with a exceptional discovery. Simply six years prior, in 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen noticed that regardless of the presence of a heavy black cardboard barrier, rays emanating from a cathode tube made a close-by display glow. His subsequent experiments confirmed that these mysterious rays might penetrate the physique’s smooth tissues to disclose bones and even steel objects, culminating within the now-iconic picture of his spouse’s hand—bones, wedding ceremony ring and all.
These rays, which Roentgen later termed x-rays, hailed the arrival of bioimaging by rendering seen what was as soon as hidden from sight. Since then, bioimaging has grow to be indispensable in scientific apply, permitting the visualization of every part from damaged bones to cancerous plenty. With the rising sophistication of imaging methods, the sphere has gone past routine anatomical imaging to probing organic processes at a molecular scale.
As govt director of the Company for Science, Expertise and Analysis’s (A*STAR) Singapore Biomaging Consortium (SBIC), Professor Patrick Cozzone spearheads the event of novel imaging methods to handle a few of the world’s most urgent public well being issues together with most cancers, cardiovascular ailments and COVID-19. Simply final yr, he co-founded Respiree, an SBIC spin-off that makes use of wearable sensors for the early prediction of scientific deterioration. For his pioneering contributions to bioimaging, Cozzone was conferred the French Legion of Honor in 2013.
On this interview with Asian Scientist Journal, Cozzone displays on his unlikely beginnings as a bioimaging scientist and offers us a preview of the revolutionary analysis going down at SBIC.
I used to be not predestined to have a profession in biomedical imaging! My school training was in arithmetic, physics and chemistry, and I subsequently accomplished a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.
As a analysis scientist at Stanford College Medical Middle within the Nineteen Seventies, I used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to check biomolecules, and as a aspect venture, I attempted to acquire pictures of some organic objects utilizing NMR. Whereas there have been different groups additionally doing the identical factor, none of us realized at the moment that we have been laying the foundations for MRI.
That is how I entered biomedical imaging which has since grow to be a full-fledged scientific self-discipline. The variety and dynamism of bioimaging, its ever-developing medical purposes, the various technological challenges to beat and the limitless margins of progress clarify why scientists within the area by no means depart it! And I’m considered one of them!
SBIC spearheads innovation in bioimaging, sensors and analytics and helps the broader Singapore R&D ecosystem in addressing nationwide priorities. To attain that, we leverage on our multidisciplinary experience, superior bioimaging capabilities and in depth community of scientific and trade companions.
SBIC is concerned in quite a lot of initiatives spanning from supporting scientific imaging departments at public hospitals to creating non-invasive optical imaging expertise for characterizing pores and skin ailments and even qualifying magnetic resonance (MR) expertise to check adulteration in meals objects comparable to honey or fruit juices!
Our R&D actions are organized round 5 pillars: biophotonics, MRI of human physique composition, isotopic imaging and novel sensible imaging probes, AI in imaging and eventually, utilizing bioimaging applied sciences in meals evaluation.
One thrilling improvement could be the entry of synthetic intelligence (AI) and machine-learning algorithms that enhance effectivity and throughput, scale back variability and enhance the standard of picture interpretation.
One other creating space includes combining two imaging modalities to supply augmented data. Contemplate MR-PET methods. They mix the prime quality and flexibility of MR pictures with the sensitivity and specificity of positron emission tomography (PET) radioactive markers. That is significantly helpful in most cancers analysis together with drug improvement and evaluation of focused therapies. SBIC could be very lively on this area on the preclinical stage.
In 2018, SBIC’s Dr Fu Yu efficiently mixed optogenetics and ultrahigh area purposeful MRI to determine in mouse brains a brand new class of neurons that management urge for food and meals consumption. These findings is likely to be a gamechanger within the remedy of consuming issues and weight problems. Collaborating with a Human Imaging Middle of Excellence in France, Yu and I are verifying if the human mind presents the identical options.
Lastly, the entire area of optical bioimaging can be creating very quick. SBIC’s biophotonics platform headed by Prof Malini Olivo is acknowledged as a world chief on this area.
You could possibly add to the listing: chemists, physicists and pc scientists! And at SBIC, they arrive from 19 completely different international locations, together with Singapore; however our frequent language is “bioimaging.” Having such quite a lot of competencies below the identical roof is a useful asset. This offers SBIC the distinct capability to push initiatives utilizing in-house capabilities, rising effectivity and guaranteeing high quality management.
SBIC helps nationwide cohort research, principally by way of multimodal MR imaging and spectroscopy. For example, SBIC’s Metabolic Imaging Group headed by Prof Sendhil Velan is implementing physique composition imaging in GUSTO and the Singapore Grownup Metabolism Research (SAMS), specializing in physique fats partitioning, kidney improvement and cardiometabolic standing.
Within the SAMS cohort, ethnic variations have been found with Indians having increased ranges of belly fats and intramyocellular lipids. Within the GUSTO cohort, we discovered that these ethnic variations in fats distribution manifest throughout early childhood. A genome-wide affiliation examine advised that Indians have a better illustration of a particular danger allele which might partly clarify ethnic variations in lipid accumulation.
The way forward for drugs is in precision well being, the place bioimaging will certainly play a pivotal function. PET-CT and MRI are already extensively utilized in precision most cancers prognosis, affected person stratification and customized remedy administration.
In most cancers analysis, bioimaging, with its capability to non-invasively interrogate molecular and mobile occasions in residing topics might contribute to understanding the transition from normality to early illness.
In 2019, a SBIC patent on wearable sensors for measuring respiration patterns was licensed to Respiree Pte Ltd, a spin-off firm based by Dr Gurpreet Singh, a senior analysis fellow at SBIC. The core expertise of Respiree depends on a sensor platform developed at SBIC that mixes the measurement of respiratory charge, respiratory patterns and blood oxygen ranges of sufferers with synthetic intelligence analytics.
The ensuing information are despatched wirelessly to a monitoring platform. AI then helps to investigate these important indicators to foretell worsening circumstances, enabling the early and efficient administration of scientific deterioration. Up to now, Respiree’s gadgets have been deployed on trial throughout chosen native hospitals to help in Singapore’s healthcare staff within the COVID-19 response. The gadgets have handed CE overview by notified our bodies with approval from Singapore’s Well being Sciences Authority whereas FDA approval is pending.
Now, Respiree together with the Nationwide College Hospital and NUS Yong Lavatory Lin College of Medication are collaborating to develop predictive fashions for the early and correct detection of scientific deterioration in sufferers affected by acute respiratory failure and pneumonia. In the end, the venture hopes to determine and deploy novel respiratory biomarkers to foretell worsening circumstances in remoted COVID-19 sufferers.
This text is from a month-to-month sequence known as Asia’s Scientific Trailblazers. Click on right here to learn different articles within the sequence.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Journal; Photograph: Company for Science, Expertise and Analysis (A*STAR).
Disclaimer: This text doesn’t essentially replicate the views of AsianScientist or its employees.
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