Work Packages

Aims and specific objectives

HyperProbe is constructing a new optical imaging device that will improve brain surgery by providing enhanced information to neurosurgeons during surgery. The HyperProbe device will be a compact instrument allowing surgeons to easily use it, read the data it provides and integrate it with existing instrumentation. This will contribute to enhance patients’ treatments and life expectancy.

Work Package description

  • Objective 1: Develop a hyperspectral imaging (HSI) system called HyperProbe to map, monitor and quantify biochemical compounds of interest in brain tissue during neurosurgery and cortical activity stimulation.
  • Objective 2: Achieve industrial upgrade of HyperProbe to a cost-effective, transportable, and compact prototype, that is fully suit-able for the neurosurgical room.
  • Objective 3: Characterise and metrologically validate HyperProbe on optically realistic brain tissue phantoms.
  • Objective 4: Develop machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to identify biomarkers of brain activity for in vivo imaging with HyperProbe during brain surgery and cortical activity stimulation.
  • Objective 5: Validate HyperProbe in clinical settings against other surgical imaging standards, such as fMRI and other optical modalities.
  • Objective 6: Conduct feasibility studies on the performances of the HyperProbe on patients during glioma surgery and multiple paradigms of stimulation of brain activity, as part of observational, proof-of-concept analysis
  • Design and develop a top-grade, benchtop HSI instrument for real-time mapping, monitoring and quantification of brain tissue biomarkers during surgical neuronavigation in tumour removal and cortical activity simulation.
  • This main system will be used for preliminary testing, AI/ML-based software development, as well as for preliminary metrological and spectral characterisation. It will also be the basis for the down-scaling and industrialisation to a final prototype for clinical translation.
  • Down-scale the lab system into a cost-effective, compact, and easy-to-use prototype for validation against ‘gold standards’ and clinical studies. Two devices will be built to share with partners involved in the clinical studies and for upgrade to safety regulation requirements.
  • Provide new tools for the metrological characterization and the optimisation of its imaging and spectroscopic parameters. This will be done by developing a digital phantom platform and new optical phantoms.
  • Develop end-to-end trainable pipelines for image reconstruction and analysis. The initial prototypes will focus on separate deep-learning pipelines for image reconstruction and analysis. These will then be integrated into a synergistic framework for joint image reconstruction and analysis.
  • Understand the correlation/association of the intraoperative optical imaging contrasts from HyperProbe against current clinical used imaging standards for neuronavigation in tumour removal and cortical activity simulation.
  • Assess Hy-perProbe targeted biomarkers as compared to corresponding current clinical modalities.
  • Execute observational, proof-of-concept studies on the applicability of HyperProbe during neurosurgery on patients. This will aim at understanding the effectiveness and its correlation/association with the routinely used intraoperative technologies to improve brain surgery, based on data concerning cerebral metabolism, vasculature and brain functionality.
  • Report on the efficacy of HyperProbe in order to better distinguish the heterogeneous composition of brain tumour areas, in terms of metabolic activity, vasculature and relationship with white matter fibre tracts.
  • Create awareness of the project.
  • Disseminate and communicate the research outcomes.
  • Develop a strategy for exploitation of results.
  • Ensure the legal, financial, and day-to-day activities necessary for the project.