EPSRC PROTEUS

Diseases that attack the lungs are some of the most common in the world: asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia are just a few examples. Currently, diagnosing bacterial infections relies on a slow process of detection followed by biopsy and lab-based culture growth – procedures that are prone to contamination and can result in late treatment. A quick in vivo, in situ method is therefore vital to minimise the disruption to both the analysis and the patient’s wellbeing, and one consortium of scientists are well on their way to developing a novel, multi-layered approach to this – the Proteus project. Proteus is a major EPSRC funded Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC), with major investment from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and three consortium Universities: The University of Edinburgh, The University of bath, and Heriot-Watt University. This directly involves some 18 postdoctoral researchers, 20 PhD students across 10 research groups, and links with various industrial partners. The team’s world-class standing in fibre optic research, sensing and imaging, signal processing, and clinical care has resulted in the design of a fully integrated system that will provide the necessary rapid and accurate diagnosis of bacterial infection.