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The international Photonics Translational Research - Medical Photonics (MEDPHOT) consortium led by Prof. Johannes de Boer of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will receive an NWO Perspective grant of 5.4 million euros for the program 'Light for a better view on diseases'. Sanli Faez (Physics) is leading one of the six projects in the consortium. The national consortium consists of four universities (VU Amsterdam, UvA, UU, TU Delft) and TNO, together with three academic hospitals and twelve companies.

Radioactivity-based PET scans depict abnormal tissue such as tumors. By using light instead of radioactivity, you can image ten to a hundred times sharper and even see a cluster of a few cells. These sharper images can be used to predict which medications will be successful in which patients, enabling faster, better and cheaper treatment.

New microscopy techniques

In his project, Sanli Faez will collaborate with researchers at Amsterdam UMC, in partnership with three companies. The project focuses on inspection of extracellular vesicles with targeted fluorescence. Mammalian cells release small extracellular vesicles (EVs) into the blood. Most EVs have a diameter between 50 and 200 nanometre and contain proteins typical of the cell of origin.

Faez and his coworkers, with the help of two new PhD candidates, will develop new microscopy and nanoparticle-inspection techniques for this project. This techniques enable them to investigate the smallest EVs at high throughput, and sort out those that contain proteins specific to the pathological condition. This capability allows them to validate if EVs can be used as biomarkers for the diseases that are investigated in the MEDPHOT consortium.