SENSE.nano 2021: HemoSensis—Noninvasive point-of-care device for absolute tissue & cerebral oximetry

Valencia Koomson, Visiting Associate Professor, MIT Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Abstract:
Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) techniques are creating pathways toward new applications to study biological tissue, including functional brain imaging, cerebral oximetry, stroke assessment, and optical mammography. NIRS methods are used to compute the concentrations of biological chromophores, such as oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin, that have specific absorption spectra and indicate tissue oxygen perfusion.

Koomson presents a non-invasive device implementing frequency-domain NIRS techniques for real-time monitoring of cerebral perfusion at the point of care. In the area of pediatric neurology, this tool enables assessment of hemorrhage. The HemoSensis tool implements advanced NIRS methods in a compact form factor by employing low-power solid-state optical devices and a patented system-on-chip (SoC) platform.

Koomson presents the core technology and present system validation results. This tool advances the field of diffuse optical imaging by developing special techniques for data collection and analysis of NIRS data and enables dual-task measurements on ambulating subjects.

Biography:
Koomson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. She completed the B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998 and 1999, respectively. As a George C. Marshall Scholar, she studied at the University of Cambridge and received the M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering in 2000 and 2003, respectively. She is currently a 2021 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT.

Koomson’s research lies at the intersection of biology, medicine, and electrical engineering. Her interests are in micro/nanoelectronic circuits and systems, biomedical devices, health informatics, and advanced nano-/microfluidic systems to probe intercellular communication. She has co-authored several book chapters, publications, and holds a patent for a system and method for measuring phase delay and amplitude of an optical signal in animal tissue. In 2005, she held an Adjunct Professor appointment at Howard University. She has held visiting appointments at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Boston University. Her research funding sponsors include NIH, NSF, DARPA, Catalyst Foundation, and W.M. Keck Foundation.

Koomson is a George C. Marshall Scholar, Intel Foundation Scholar, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and 2010 recipient of the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. She served as the Technical Program Chair of the 60th IEEE Midwest Symposium on Circuits in Systems. She is a member of several professional societies, technical program committees, and editorial boards for high impact journals.

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The 2021 SENSE.nano symposium focused on human subjects research, exploring how sensors and sensing systems can enable current medical studies and future clinical practice. SENSE.nano 2021 also celebrated the re-opening of the expanded Clinical Research Center (CRC) at MIT, now known as MIT's Center for Clinical and Translational Research.

Broken into two half-day webinars, SENSE.nano 2021 investigated human health through various technologies including motion capture, physiological monitoring, and sensing tools for the study of bodily fluids. Over a series of invited technical talks, panel discussions, presentations by MIT-launched startups, and views into MIT research today with current graduate students, this event provided needs context and solution perspectives in the domains of sensing for medical engineering and science, and for the care of humans in their environment.

The 2021 SENSE.nano Symposium was sponsored by MIT.nano, MIT's Center for Clinical and Translational Research, and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP).