Sheffield Biomedical Imaging Expert Seconded to Leading UK Skin Cancer Imaging Firm

Date Announced: 10 Mar 2011

Royal Academy of Engineering grant supports commercial access to academic expertise.

(Orpington, UK) March 10, 2011 - Dr Stephen Matcher, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, has been seconded to Orpington, UK-based start-up Michelson Diagnostics Ltd for 6 months, to provide the company with the benefits of his expertise in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), an advanced technique for skin imaging used in their products.

The secondment is enabled by a grant from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) Industrial Secondment Scheme. This scheme is intended to help companies gain access to highly qualified academic expertise and to build links with universities, and at the same time for academics to gain experience of working in industry, so that they can impart the fruits of this experience to their students through teaching, and to help them focus their own research programmes on the most relevant topics.

During his secondment, Dr Matcher will help develop advanced image processing algorithms for use in Michelson’s ‘VivoSight’ laser scanners for imaging skin cancers and other skin conditions. The project started in February 2011.

Dr Matcher joined the University of Sheffield as Senior Lecturer in 2006. His principal research interests are in the development and application of novel biophotonic tools to aid characterisation of biological tissues, especially for use in medicine and tissue engineering. He has worked in OCT research for more than 10 years. Dr Matcher is currently supported by EPSRC to develop polarization-sensitive OCT and to develop advanced light sources for OCT imaging.

“I am very pleased that the RAE is supporting my secondment to Michelson Diagnostics, a world leader in OCT imaging” said Dr Matcher, “and I hope that my skills and expertise will be of practical benefit to the company”.

Jon Holmes, CEO of Michelson Diagnostics, commented “Dr Matcher is already providing invaluable insights and research. His secondment enables us to develop and test new capabilities with huge future potential, without disrupting our near-term product development programme.”

Source: Michelson Diagnostics

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