Measurement methodologies

• Use of microdialysis to sample tissue in real-time
• Microfabricated microdialysis sampling devices
• Digital microfludicis - microfabricated flow-segmentation devices for microdialysis
• Low volume on-line electrochemical sensor systems using microelectrodes
• Development of biosensor systems for key neurochemicals and energy metabolites
• Optimisation of biosensor systems for monitoring cell culture
• Design of computerised instrumentation
• Development of signal processing algorithms to fuse data from different real-time measurement techniques
• Measurement of local blood flow using laser speckle methods
• Measurement of brain electrical activity - electrocoticography

Clinical and neuroscience research

• Clinical detection and characterisation of spontaneous secondary insults such as electrical spreading depolarisation waves in traumatic brain injury patients
• Clinical monitoring of neurochemistry in brain injury in traumatic brain injury patients
• Translational study of transient neurochemical mechanisms underlying brain injury
• Development of energy budgets for neurotransmission
• Clinical monitoring to detect ischaemia during free flap reconstructive surgery
• Clinical monitoring of ‘at risk’ bowel during and following surgery
• Development of monitoring system for transplanted kidneys
• Development of a point of care test for obstetric choliastasis - a key risk factor for the development of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women

The group is currently developing a new class of clinical instrument for monitoring human brain injuries; building microfabricated neurochemical analysis systems for neuroscience.

Clinical and neuroscience research

• Clinical detection and characterisation of spontaneous electrical depolarisation waves in traumatic brain injury patients.
• Clinical monitoring of neurochemistry in brain injury in traumatic brain injury patients
• Translational study of transient neurochemical mechanisms underlying brain injury
• Development of energy budgets for neurotransmission
• Clinical monitoring of ‘at risk’ bowel during and following surgery
• Development of monitoring system for transplanted kidneys
• Development of a point of care test for obstetric choliastasis - a key risk factor for the development of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women
  
  

Sensors for clinical monitoring

Prof. Martyn Boutelle is interested in the development of new sensor techniques for use in medicine, particularly for the analysis of brain function during and after surgery. He has developed a system using dialysis probes coupled with electrodes sensitive to specific metabolites to monitor the recovery of function after surgery or injury.

The dialysis system must work on minimal volumes and large flows if it is to respond quickly enough to moniter the behaviour of the neurons on the clinically critical timescales.