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ANANBIOANAL - 2010
Pharmaceutical R & D Summit
doi:10.4172/2155-9872.1000001
Raman Spectroscopy: An Emerging Tool for Clinical Diagnostics
Narahara Chari Dingari*, Ishan Barman, Jeon Woong Kang, Chae-Ryon Kong, Ramachandra R. Dasari, Michael S. Feld
*G. R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
B
iomedical applications of lasers and laser spectroscopy are changing the face
of medicine as it is currently practiced. Spectroscopy is a promising means of
extracting biochemical and morphological information from tissue that is relevant
to disease progression and diagnosis. In particular, Raman spectroscopy is a
powerful tool for non-invasive and real time diagnosis due to its exquisite molecular
specificity and lack of sample preparation requirements. Raman spectroscopy,
which measures the molecular vibrations of a sample, is currently being used to
study atherosclerosis, measure blood analytes, and detect dysplasia and cancer
in various tissues including the breast, cervix, prostate, and skin. In this talk, we
present our results on quantitative biological spectroscopy for non-invasive blood
analyte detection. Our work in this area is primarily motivated by the necessity for
accurate and frequent measurement of blood glucose levels, which is most commonly
achieved by withdrawal of blood. Given the inconvenience and invasiveness of this
procedure, a non-invasive method would greatly benefit the increasing number
of diabetics. Our laboratory has successfully demonstrated the ability to measure
glucose, urea and other blood analytes in serum, whole blood and individual
human volunteers. In addition, we present our results for turbidity correction and
suppression of tissue autofluorescence in biological Raman spectroscopy. We
show that correction for these non-analyte specific variances provides a clinically
accurate and robust calibration algorithm that can be used for prospective prediction
in human population. Finally, we discuss our plans for miniaturization of the device
for point of care and commercial applications.
ANALBIOANAL-2010
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