Part3

Lund Laser Centre (LLC) is located within Lund University in Sweden and specializes in exploring light-matter interaction both for basic research and for a large number of applications.
Being one of the largest laser laboratories in Northern Europe, it is included in the European Commission Large Scale Infrastructure programme, meaning that any researcher within EU can apply to utilize this laboratory for projects requiring unique equipment or expertise available at LLC.
Information about the facilities and the application procedure is available through the home-page: www.llc.lth.se.

Lund University also hosts a Medical Laser Centre as an active part of the Lund Laser Centre. This Centre is headed by Prof. Stefan Andersson-Engels from Department of Physics and Associate Professor Katarina Svanberg from Department of Oncology. These persons also lead the LLC activities within the Bright project.

The research at the Centre is within the field of biomedical optics with clinical applications. We have been working with methods to measure optical properties, both for diagnostic purposes and for dosimetry in connection to photodynamic therapy.

The expertise gained in modeling and measurements of optical properties has been used to develop a novel interstitial photodynamic system with on-line feedback.
Spectroscopy is here used to reveal the presence of important constituents for PDT during the treatment: light, photosensitizer and oxygen. For these measurements, we have also employed the long experience of fluorescence spectroscopy for tissue diagnostics, another main area of research within the Centre, with numerous clinical evaluation studies with positive results.

Much effort has also been paid to develop tools for time-resolved diffuse remittance spectroscopy to measure absorption and scattering spectra. Developed instruments and evaluation routines have been used in optical mammography research and have also gained interest for in-line control measurement in the pharmaceutical industry.
The development of a novel technique to measure the absorption of a gas in highly scattering materials has been successful. This technique has been explored for monitoring the sinus cavities.

Another direction of the research at the Centre has been to develop novel laser- based X-ray sources for radiographic imaging, where the small source size and possibilities for gated imaging suppressing scattered X-rays, provide interesting prospects in reduced absorbed dose.

The Centre has contributed significantly to the field of biomedical optics. Historically, the group has been a pioneer in both fluorescence spectroscopy and time-resolved remittance measurements for tissue diagnostics, as well as in photodynamic therapy using topically applied ALA for photosensitization.

The research interest of the group has since expanded both on the basic research level and on clinical applications. During recent years, the most outstanding research activities involve clinical evaluation of fluo-rescence spectroscopy and imaging in a number of clinical specialities, development of a system for interstitial photodynamic therapy utilizing results from on-line feed-back measurements for treatment guidance, tissue characterization using time-resolved spectroscopy, as well as the development of a technique to measure concentration of gases in turbid media, such as tissue.

The ongoing research and development in photodynamic therapy yields a possibility to treat larger tumour volumes and may thus allow inclusion of new indications to be treated. Presently, a pilot clinical study for treatment of malignant lesions in the prostatic gland is planned. Clinical fluorescence spectroscopy/ imaging studies have been conducted to evaluate the potential of the technique in characterizing colonic polyps as well as laryngeal and brain tumours with very good results. Fluorescence techniques are also refined to enable improved depth resolution in fluorescence molecular imaging.
We have furthermore pursued time-resolved measurements for tissue charac-terization, by, for instance, developing a system based on white-light generation in a micro-structured optical fibre, and detection of the remitted broad-band light with both wavelength and temporal resolution using a spectrometer equipped with a streak-camera.
The time-resolved technique has been used for characterizing breast tissue in vivo, and has also led to a spin-off project, where AstraZeneca are very interested in developing a technique for inline production analysis of pharmaceuticals.
The aim with another project within the group is to employ the unique features of the GASMAS technique developed within the group for specific clinical problems. Here sinus cavity diagnostics is a first application. Premature / Neonatal lung diagnostics is a further possibility to explore.