Basic HTML Version
11
Annual Review
2010/11
A photosynthetic nanoring, one of the
molecular structures that Professor Anderson
and his group produce. Image: Harry
Anderson.
1. Professor Harry Anderson
Tutorial Fellow in Organic Chemistry
2. Dr Simon Butt
Tutorial Fellow in Neurophysiology
3. Professor Stephen Faulkner
Tutorial Fellow in Inorganic Chemistry
4. Dr Simon Hunt
Tutorial Fellow in Immunology
5. Dr Edward Harcourt
Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy
6. Dr Stephen Payne
Tutorial Fellow in Biomedical
Engineering
7. Dr Piotr Orlowski
Research Fellow and Tutor in
Engineering
8. Dr Thomas Sørensen
Chemistry and Imaging Research
Associate
Broadening
the cluster
Advances in Imaging have also captured the interest
of modern philosophy and the Imaging Cluster
includes Dr Edward Harcourt, Fellow in Philosophy
at Keble. He is interested among other things in
moral philosophy
and the
philosophy of mind
.
Particularly being able to see more clearly how the
brain operates raises questions about empathy,
our knowledge of other minds, psychiatric illness,
emotion, and the relation of the emotions to moral
reasoning. Can physiology provide the answer to
some philosophical problems or does the empirical
approach leave us no better off? The cluster also
provides a space for these issues to be discussed in
an open-ended way.
The Imaging Cluster has organised events to
promote the exchange of ideas and opened
discussion with other colleagues, particularly
bringing in younger scholars to the work of the
cluster. “As more senior researchers, we fervently
hope there will be a trickle-down perspective-
broadening effect on our post-doc Fellows and
post-grad students whom we also encourage to
participate”, says Simon Hunt. “The most satisfying
science always emerges when a new way of looking
at data lets us recognise a novel pattern that is
blindingly obvious to everyone once it has been
pointed out.”
The strength of the Keble Imaging Cluster lies in the
interdisciplinary nature of scholars within it, making it
a whole that is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
Current Cluster
Members
1
5
2
6
3
4
8
7
Molecular materials to
diagnose and treat illness
The Imaging Cluster is exploring new ways to diagnose and apply
treatments directly to the diseased area. Their aim is to develop
improved imaging technologies to study, in real-time, the progress of
disease and monitor its treatment using precisely targeted therapies.
This approach is called
theragnostics
(therapeutics fused with
diagnostics).
Cluster members,
chemistry Professors
Harry Anderson and
Stephen Faulkner, are
working on the design
and development of
new molecular materials
to use for imaging and
improving contrast. For
example, they have
designed molecules with
certain luminescent and
contrast properties, using
rare-earth elements, for
seeing inside our own
bodies; and working together with Professor Ole Paulsen (former Keble
Fellow, now at Cambridge), ingenious voltage sensitive porphyrin dyes
have been devised which aim to image electrical signals in the brain.
Professor Anderson is also involved in the design of molecular-size
drugs to be used specifically to target diseased cells and thereby allow
localised treatment.
One can envisage ways of ‘lighting up’ specific areas of interest to aid
in their identification and analysis. Imaging a tumour, for example, and
monitoring its reduction in real-time would be a very significant clinical
development. See
and
http://faulkner.