£3.8M awarded to UK universities to develop lung monitoring devices

A team of scientists, engineers and doctors from universities across the UK have been awarded £3.8 million to develop lung monitoring devices.

The Proteus team from Edinburgh, Bath and Heriot-Watt universities were awarded the funding by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The team is developing medical devices that monitor disease deep inside the lungs and which have the potential to change how lung diseases are diagnosed and treated.

The team will also use the funding to launch a new facility to speed up the development of healthcare technologies.

The Proteus project was launched in 2013 and has since created a range of chemical probes that detect the presence of diseases in the lungs. The probes are able to diagnose bacterial infections, providing patients with accurate treatments.

The team have also developed a camera that can detect sources of light inside the body, enabling doctors to track medical tools used in minimally invasive procedures.

Next year, experts from Durham University are joining the project alongside 15 PhD students at Edinburgh and the partner universities.

Professor Mark Bradley, director of Proteus from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry, said: “This investment will allow us to push the technology into multiple new areas of application. It will also enable us to develop project sustainability and support staff development and independence. As part of the project, we are investing in a unique facility that will allow the rapid bench-to-bedside transfer of the project’s technology.”

Professor Robert Thomson, of Heriot-Watt University’s School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, said: “The project offers tremendous potential in not only assisting in the early diagnosis of lung disease but ultimately in how it is treated. Through this latest investment award we can accelerate the development of Proteus technologies for the betterment of the medical field.”