Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/R88496/01
Title:	Optical trapping and Manipulation of Loaded Microcapsules for Sonoporation Optimisation
Principal Investigator:	Dholakia, Professor K
Other Investigators:	Sibbett, Professor W
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Physics and Astronomy
Organisation:	University of St Andrews
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 October 2002	Ends:	30 September 2005	Value (£):	156,121
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Drug Formulation & Delivery Instrumentation Eng. & Dev. Medical science & disease
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Healthcare
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Diagnostic ultrasound can mediate the transport of molecules into viable cells via a mechanism that reversibly permeabilises the cell membrane. The efficacy of molecule uptake is much enhanced if commercially available ultrasound contrast agent is introduced to the locale. The use of ultrasound to mediate delivery of molecules to cells in this manner is termed 'sonoporation'. Whilst the mechanism for the process is unknown at present, there is evidence to suggest that micro-bubbles in the mother solution may undergo cavitation, eventually imploding adiabatically and disrupting the cell membrane in the process. If these implosion events occur sufficiently close to a cell, exogenous agents can then enter the cytosol. We will shed light on the sonoporation mechanism by using high speed optical microscopy to digitally capture the aftermath of implosion events in microbubbles containing fluorescent dyes. The bubbles will be optically trapped at controllable displacements from the cells in tailored light beams and laser interference patterns. By monitoring these events (i.e. the spatio-temporal distribution of the dye), we will be able to validate computational models based on cavitation physics. The validated models will then be used to optimise aspects of the sonoporation process in terms of the ultrasound field, and bubble, variables. Hand-in hand with this we will study in detail optical tweezing and guiding of microbubbles/contrast agents to facilitate these studies. This will yield new data for tweezing and guiding of such particles.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.st-and.ac.uk