2012 - Keele University
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Cell-IQ enables high quality cell images

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Posted on 12 October 2012

Members of the Research Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine (ISTM) based at the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Hospital in Oswestry have taken delivery of a Cell-IQ microscope with the additional capability to photograph cells over time in a controlled environment. Images can be reconstructed into a video, enabling accurate calculations of cell quantity, size and growth.

The Cell-IQ was bought using donations and legacies held by the Institute of Orthopaedics plus a contribution from the Keele University HEFCE capital fund. It is located in the Leopold Muller Arthritis Research Centre for use by all the research groups at Oswestry, including Spinal Studies, Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre, Rheumatology and Centre for Inherited Neuromuscular Disorders, and is available for other Keele users and external collaborators too.

Its purchase arose through a collaboration between Keele's Professor of Orthopaedics, James Richardson (ISTM) and Lecturer in Computer Science Dr KP Lam (EPSAM). The collaboration was originally funded from a "Sandpit" meeting held in September 2008 through the Modelling Methods for Medical Engineering (3ME) Initiative. Professor Richardson is always interested in assessing the quality of a patient's own cells before the clinical procedure of implanting back into their knee to repair a damaged joint. 

Dr KP Lam believed he could help by developing new computational techniques applied to the cell images and so together they have carried out a series of projects, culminating in buying the Cell-IQ. The project is a very good example of the multi-disciplinary research inspired and supported by the 3ME Initiative over a four year period, funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council. The project has recently won a fully-funded Industrial CASE studentship from the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council which is now being advertised.

 

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