Accurate and precise sensing/imaging is a critical requirement in healthcare and water quality monitoring, specifically with a focus on biochemical analytes. Conventional solutions lack either one or more of the following requirements sensitivity, specificity, resolution, deep-imaging capability, fast response, and nanoscale chemical fingerprints. Photonic modalities are capable of providing elegant and efficient solutions to the above issues, but are limited by light scattering or a poor interaction with analytes leading to signal to noise ratio issues, and background interference leading to false positives.

Our CoE aims to address the above fundamental physical bottlenecks by pursuing a holistic approach, based on cutting edge enablers such as whispering gallery modes (WGMs), multi-photon excitation based fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) with Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) phenomenon, optics directly written on fibertip, MEMS and meta-surfaces based endoscopy, polaritons, nano-scale Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (Nano-FTIR), and two-dimensional (2D) materials. Our vision is that the above enablers are not only key for the above mentioned biochemical sensing and imaging applications, but will also sprout exciting new modalities that solve many more complex problems in allied areas.

The CoE brings together a diverse team of faculty with a vast level of experience (>100 man years) in the enabling technologies, both from science and engineering backgrounds. We also intend to leverage off our research collaborations within and outside India. Specifically, we will foster working relationships with several top groups around the world on the above research themes, including joint PhD guidance and publications. We will be offering a joint Masters program on Biochemical Sensing and Imaging with the help of our foreign collaborators to develop skilled manpower. We also plan to leverage our ties within the IITM R&D ecosystem such as HTIC, ICCW, and Pravartak Technologies to usher our technologies out of our laboratories. We plan to achieve global visibility by disseminating our research findings at top tier conferences, with a strong presence at each conference. We also plan to organize a workshop/conference at IITM, for which we will invite top researchers and experts from industry. Much of the CoE activities including the novel research proposed above will be submitted for publication to high impact journals such as Nature or Science to bring global attention towards IITM. Our novel ideas are expected to generate several valuable IP and healthcare devices, which we intend to monetize through our R&D contacts in the IITM Startup ecosystem as well as established industry partners.

References:

1. Nature Methods, 5, 591–596, 2008 Opto-Electronic Advances, 01, 180015, 2018 Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 043704, 2012. (WGM-based platform for biochemical sensing )

2. https://www.toptica.com/applications/ultrafast-studies/flim/ (Multiphoton FLIM microscopy for single photon detectors and biomedical research)

3. https://www.docpanel.com/blog/post/liver-lesions-types-causes-diagnosis-more (Multifunctional Plasmonic Nanosystems for deep tissue imaging)

4. PHYSICAL REVIEW X, 9, 041050, 2019 (Optical MEMS and Metasurfaces for Imaging and Sensing)

5. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 1263–1268, 2005 Nature Methods, 8, 26–29, 2011 (Optogenetics and Neural-Imaging)

6. PLoS ONE, 13(6), e0199112, 2018 (Nano-FTIR and NanoRaman for Bio-Chemical Fingerprints)