The human gut is a relatively inaccessible area of the human body. Exploring inside the body has been one of my major research interests for a long time. Initially we developed a single modality capsule capable of performing wireless pH measurement inside the human gut. In addition, we investigated transmitter design and radio propagation through the human body for intestinal capsule data logging. The results from the pH capsule were promising and encouraging. However, I understood from the beginning that a single modality will not necessarily provide doctors with sufficient information to make informed clinical decisions. So I set on a research plan to explore additional imaging and sensing modalities that would add on to our existing work and improve the probability of early detection of intestinal disease and reduce the detection false positives. Mohammed Al-Rawhani joined my research group to investigate the possibility of fluorescence imaging of the small bowel using an ingestible capsule. During his PhD, Mohammed gained experience of CMOS application specific circuit (ASIC) design which enabled him to create the first low excitation fluorescence imager that is based on single photon avalanche detectors. To make the imager suitable for a wireless capsule, James Beeley joined the project and added his expertise on digital ASIC design, wireless communications and data acquisition which combined with Mohammed’s work to produce the first prototype intestinal fluorescence imaging capsule. This work was published in Nature Scientific Reports and received significant publicity in UK and worldwide media.

Our efforts paid off through the award of the Sonopill grant which has enabled me to escalate efforts towards realising an integrated multimodality pill integrating pH, white light, autofluorescence and ultrasound imaging into a single capsule encapsulating all the necessary electronics while being compact enough to traverse the human intestine. The project has been further enhanced by Claudio Accrino and Gianluca Melino joining my team to investigate ways to enhance the resolution and performance of the autofluoresecene imager.

My group and I have derived a great deal of satisfaction from our work in intestinal capsule imaging, and we are looking forward to testing the Sonopill prototype. 

First published: 23 March 2017

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