Clare Elwell

Last updated
Clare Elwell
ClareElwell.jpg
NationalityBritish
Education
Scientific career
Institutions University College London
Thesis Measurement and Data Analysis Techniques for the Investigation of Adult Cerebral Haemodynamics (1995)
Doctoral advisor
Website www.ucl.ac.uk/medphys/contacts/people/celwell

Clare Elwell is a British academic who is a professor of medical physics and director of the Near Infrared Spectroscopy Group within the Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory at University College London. She has served as president of both the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue and the Society for Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy.

Contents

Elwell has received a number of awards including the Women in Science and Engineering Research Award, the Medical Research Council Science Suffrage Award, and the Melvin H. Knisely International Young Scientist Award from the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue.

Education and career

Elwell attended the London International Youth Science Forum in 1984 and from this was inspired to study medical physics. [1] She received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and medical physics at the University of Exeter in 1988. She remained in Exeter to work as a clinical physicist in The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, obtaining a MPhil in 1991 researching measurements in the diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea. She left her job as a clinical physicist to work as a research fellow in the neonatal intensive care research team at the Paediatrics Department of University College London.[ citation needed ]

Elwell worked under David Delpy and Mark Cope developing non-invasive tools that used near-infrared light to measure newborn brain function in the neonatal intensive care unit. During this period she also pioneered the use of near infrared spectroscopy to measure blood flow in the adult brain. [2] [ better source needed ] In 1995, she received her PhD and won the Melvin H. Knisely International Young Scientist Award from the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue. [3]

In 1996, she received a Medical Research Council Non Clinical Research Training Fellowship in the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering at University College London, moving to lecturer in 1999 and senior lecturer in 2005 in the same department. In 2008, she became a professor of medical physics and in 2016 she won the Women in Science and Engineering Research Award. [4]

Elwell was president of International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue in 2014. [5] She is the co-founder and current President of the Society for Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy. [6] In 2017, Elwell was appointed the President of the London International Youth Science Forum. [7]

Research

Elwell has led a number of interdisciplinary teams developing optical methods for monitoring tissue oxygenation, haemodynamics and metabolism in brain and muscle. Her research projects have included studies of brain development, acute brain injury in adults and infants, sports performance, paediatric cardiology, malaria, infant brain development and malnutrition. Her work delivered the first images of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase in the adult and infant brain. [8] She is the lead physicist in a collaboration with neurodevelopmental psychologists at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck, University of London investigating the use of near infrared spectroscopy to deliver an early marker of autism. [9]

Elwell currently leads the Brain Imaging for Global HealTh (BRIGHT) research project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. [10] BRIGHT investigates the impact of malnutrition on early infant brain development and recently reported the first ever imaging of the infant brain in Africa. Through this work she established the GlobalfNIRS initiative to support the use of functional near infrared spectroscopy in global health projects. [11]

Public engagement

Elwell is committed to engaging the public in her research with a particular emphasis on enthusing young aspiring scientists via talks and demonstrations at schools and science festivals. She exhibited “Shedding Light on the Human Body” at the 2006 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition and has performed at Pint of Science and Science Show Off.[ citation needed ] She won the University College London Provost Public Engagement Award in 2011 [12] and the University College London Engineering Engager of the Year Award in 2018.[ citation needed ] In 2018 she became a British Science Association Media Fellow, seconded to the Financial Times, London. [13]

She is a founder and Trustee of the Young Scientists for Africa charity. [14] She was inspired to create this charity to give African science students the opportunity to attend the London International Youth Science Forum as she did as a student.

Women in science

Elwell contributes to a range of women in science and women in leadership initiatives. She won the Medical Research Council Science Suffrage Award in 2013 [15] and the UK Inspirational Teacher Award for Women in 2014. [16] She was one of the featured scientists in the Royal Society's Mothers in Science Project. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Near-infrared spectroscopy</span> Analytical method

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a spectroscopic method that uses the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Typical applications include medical and physiological diagnostics and research including blood sugar, pulse oximetry, functional neuroimaging, sports medicine, elite sports training, ergonomics, rehabilitation, neonatal research, brain computer interface, urology, and neurology. There are also applications in other areas as well such as pharmaceutical, food and agrochemical quality control, atmospheric chemistry, combustion research and knowledge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Functional near-infrared spectroscopy</span> Optical technique for monitoring brain activity

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an optical brain monitoring technique which uses near-infrared spectroscopy for the purpose of functional neuroimaging. Using fNIRS, brain activity is measured by using near-infrared light to estimate cortical hemodynamic activity which occur in response to neural activity. Alongside EEG, fNIRS is one of the most common non-invasive neuroimaging techniques which can be used in portable contexts. The signal is often compared with the BOLD signal measured by fMRI and is capable of measuring changes both in oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin concentration, but can only measure from regions near the cortical surface. fNIRS may also be referred to as Optical Topography (OT) and is sometimes referred to simply as NIRS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Britton Chance</span> American biochemist and sailor

Britton "Brit" Chance was an American biochemist, biophysicist, scholar, and inventor whose work helped develop spectroscopy as a way to diagnose medical problems. He was "a world leader in transforming theoretical science into useful biomedical and clinical applications" and is considered "the founder of the biomedical photonics." He received the National Medal of Science in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce J. Tromberg</span> American chemist

Bruce J. Tromberg is an American photochemist and a leading researcher in the field of biophotonics. He is the director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Before joining NIH, he was Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and of Surgery at the School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine. He was the principal investigator of the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program (LAMMP), and the Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at Irvine. He was a co-leader of the Onco-imaging and Biotechnology Program of the NCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at Irvine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura-Ann Petitto</span> American psychologist and neuroscientist (born c. 1954)

Laura-Ann Petitto is a cognitive neuroscientist and a developmental cognitive neuroscientist known for her research and scientific discoveries involving the language capacity of chimpanzees, the biological bases of language in humans, especially early language acquisition, early reading, and bilingualism, bilingual reading, and the bilingual brain. Significant scientific discoveries include the existence of linguistic babbling on the hands of deaf babies and the equivalent neural processing of signed and spoken languages in the human brain. She is recognized for her contributions to the creation of the new scientific discipline, called educational neuroscience. Petitto chaired a new undergraduate department at Dartmouth College, called "Educational Neuroscience and Human Development" (2002-2007), and was a Co-Principal Investigator in the National Science Foundation and Dartmouth's Science of Learning Center, called the "Center for Cognitive and Educational Neuroscience" (2004-2007). At Gallaudet University (2011–present), Petitto led a team in the creation of the first PhD in Educational Neuroscience program in the United States. Petitto is the Co-Principal Investigator as well as Science Director of the National Science Foundation and Gallaudet University’s Science of Learning Center, called the "Visual Language and Visual Learning Center (VL2)". Petitto is also founder and Scientific Director of the Brain and Language Laboratory for Neuroimaging (“BL2”) at Gallaudet University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxygen saturation (medicine)</span> Medical measurement

Oxygen saturation is the fraction of oxygen-saturated haemoglobin relative to total haemoglobin in the blood. The human body requires and regulates a very precise and specific balance of oxygen in the blood. Normal arterial blood oxygen saturation levels in humans are 96–100 percent. If the level is below 90 percent, it is considered low and called hypoxemia. Arterial blood oxygen levels below 80 percent may compromise organ function, such as the brain and heart, and should be promptly addressed. Continued low oxygen levels may lead to respiratory or cardiac arrest. Oxygen therapy may be used to assist in raising blood oxygen levels. Oxygenation occurs when oxygen molecules enter the tissues of the body. For example, blood is oxygenated in the lungs, where oxygen molecules travel from the air and into the blood. Oxygenation is commonly used to refer to medical oxygen saturation.

The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) is an interdisciplinary society of approximately 300 members that represents essentially every major tissue oxygen research laboratory in the world. Its purpose is to further the understanding of all aspects of the processes involved in the oxygen transport from the air to its ultimate consumption in the cells of the various organs of the body.

Duane Frederick Bruley is an American researcher, entrepreneur, and academician.

Melvin Henry Knisely was an American physiologist who first observed the pathological clumping of red and white cells, in vivo, at the capillary level. One of the most cited Knisely works was his research which documented the fact that even one alcoholic drink kills brain cells, which are irreplaceable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Delpy</span> British bioengineer

David Thomas Delpy,, is a British bioengineer, and Hamamatsu Professor of Medical Photonics, at University College London.

Herman Stanton Bachelard was a British neurochemist, editor-in-chief and neuroscience book writer. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, and gained his BSc in Chemistry and Microbiology from Melbourne University in 1951, achieving an MSc and PhD in Biochemistry at Monash University. He developed most of his academic career in the United Kingdom, where Professor Bachelard headed the Departments of Biochemistry of the University of Bath and St Thomas' Hospital King's College London School of Medicine, concluding his career as Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Nottingham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osmund Reynolds</span> Perinatal and neonatal paediatrician

Edward Osmund Royle Reynolds, CBE, FRCP, FRCOG, FRCPCH, FMedSci, FRS, was a British paediatrician and Neonatologist who was most notable for the introduction of new techniques intended to improve the survival of newborns, especially those with respiratory failure, and for a series of papers regarding the value of techniques such as ultrasound imaging, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and near infrared spectroscopy in determining the development and response to injury of the infant brain after birth.

Elizabeth M. C. Hillman is a British-born academic who is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at Columbia University. She was awarded the 2011 Adolph Lomb Medal from The Optical Society and the 2018 SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anita Mahadevan-Jansen</span> Biomedical engineer

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and holds the Orrin H. Ingram Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Her research considers the development of optical techniques for clinical diagnosis and surgical guidance, particularly using Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy. She serves on the Board of Directors of SPIE, and is a Fellow of SPIE, The Optical Society, Society for Applied Spectroscopy, and the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. She was elected to serve as the 2020 Vice President of SPIE. With her election, Mahadevan-Jansen joined the SPIE presidential chain and served as President-Elect in 2021 and the Society's President in 2022.

Rebeccah Slater is a British neuroscientist and academic. She is professor of paediatric neuroscience and a senior Wellcome Trust research fellow at the University of Oxford. She is also a professorial fellow in Neuroscience at St John's College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melinda Duer</span>

Melinda Jane Duer is Professor of Biological and Biomedical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and was the first woman to be appointed to an academic position in the department. Her research investigates changes in molecular structure of the extracellular matrix in tissues in disease and during ageing. She serves as Deputy Warden of Robinson College, Cambridge. She is an editorial board member of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markita del Carpio Landry</span> Bolivian-Canadian chemist

Markita del Carpio Landry is a Bolivian-American chemist who is an associate professor in the department of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research considers nanomaterials for brain imaging and the development of sustainable crops. She was a recipient of the 2022 Vilcek prize for creative promise. del Carpio Landry's work has been featured on NPR, popular mechanics, the San Francisco Chronicle, and C&E News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igor Meglinski</span> British Biomedical Engineer, Quantum Biophotonics and Optical Physicist

Igor Meglinski is a British, New Zealand and Finnish scientist serving as a principal investigator at the College of Engineering & Physical Sciences at Aston University, where he is a Professor in Quantum Biophotonics and Biomedical Engineering. He is a Faculty member in the School of Engineering and Technology at the Department of Mechanical, Biomedical & Design Engineering, and is also associated with the Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT) and Aston Research Centre for Health in Ageing (ARCHA).

Digistain is a Harvard backed medical technology, registered and cleared with the UK’s Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency that provides oncologists with decision support data to guide therapy decisions in cancer patients. Cost effectively with an accelerated turnaround time of under an hour. Comparable diagnostics delay treatment decisions by several weeks and are cost prohibitive, limiting their clinical value especially in the community setting due to accessibility. Initial validation of Digistain has been achieved with early stage hormone positive breast cancer. The technology is used widely by oncologists to support the decision to administer or not to administer chemotherapy in early stage patients. Digistain’s technology can accurately predict breast cancer patients who are at at low risk of disease recurrence and forgo adjuvant chemotherapy.

Judit Gervain is a psychologist, neurolinguist and acquisitionist who is professor of developmental psychology at the University of Padua.

References

  1. "Clare Elwell's experience of LIYSF". LIYSF. 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  2. Elwell, C. E.; Cope, M.; Edwards, A. D.; Wyatt, J. S.; Delpy, D. T.; Reynolds, E. O. (1994). "Quantification of adult cerebral hemodynamics by near-infrared spectroscopy". Journal of Applied Physiology. 77 (6): 2753–2760. doi:10.1152/jappl.1994.77.6.2753. ISSN   8750-7587. PMID   7896617.
  3. "Awardees - The Official Site of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue". www.isott.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  4. "WISE Awards 2016". Welcome to the WISE Campaign. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  5. "Past Meetings and Presidents - The Official Site of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue". isott.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  6. "Officers". The Society for functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy. 2014-01-31. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  7. "LIYSF: London International Youth Science Forum - Clare Elwell". www.liysf.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  8. Brigadoi, Sabrina; Phan, Phong; Highton, David; Powell, Samuel; Cooper, Robert J.; Hebden, Jeremy; Smith, Martin; Tachtsidis, Ilias; Elwell, Clare E. (2017). "Image reconstruction of oxidized cerebral cytochrome C oxidase changes from broadband near-infrared spectroscopy data". Neurophotonics. 4 (2): 021105. doi:10.1117/1.NPh.4.2.021105. ISSN   2329-423X. PMC   5443419 . PMID   28560239.
  9. "First signs of autism appear in infancy". UCL News. 2018-08-23. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  10. "The BRIGHT Project". www.globalfnirs.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  11. "Home". www.globalfnirs.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  12. Tel: +4420 7679 2000, University College London-Gower Street- London- WC1E 6BT (2016-08-24). "Provost's Awards for Public Engagement". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. "Media Fellows". British Science Association. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  14. "Young Scientists for Africa". Young Scientists for Africa. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  15. "Suffrage Science 2013 Events". LMS London Institute of Medical Sciences. 2013-03-14. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  16. Elwell, Clare (2014-10-14). "Honoured to have received @womensawards: RT This years Inspirational Teacher award went to Clare Elwell @IAKUK14 pic.twitter.com/njf2B0b4Fy". @clare_elwell. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  17. Leyser, Ottoline (2008). "Mothers in Science – 64 ways to have it all" (PDF). Retrieved Dec 31, 2018.