Competitive Research Programme (CRP) 

Fibre Medical Devices for Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease

PI: Asst. Prof. Liu Linbo, NTU

Offering a better view into the CAD problem

Clinically-viable, next-gen fibre-optic technology that can obtain subcellular resolution images of coronary arteries and offer invaluable insights into tackling coronary arterary disease (CAD), the leading cause of death in Singapore and around the world… Sounds like a pipe dream? Not quite.

Leveraging on the state-of-the-art fibre drawing facilities of The Photonics Institute at NTU, a multidisciplinary team led by Assistant Prof Liu Linbo is hard at work developing imaging tools that will enable medical researchers to obtain microscopic pathological information and better study, diagnose and manage CAD, which can cause chest pain and heart attacks. The team includes researchers from NTU’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and collaborators from top medical schools.

Their findings may also eventually serve as a platform to develop imaging technologies for cancer detection, as well as for biomedical applications – such as to treat pulmonary diseases, eye diseases and skin diseases – where visualization of subcellular morphology inside the human body is critical. This next wave of optical diagnostic technologies could have a dramatic impact on clinical practice and help to improve patient care standards.