Dr. Katjana Ehrlich is a RA with the PreCisE project which aims to combine optical laser ablation with imaging tools like fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to aid differentiation and removal of cancer in vivo. Her work focuses on developing biomedical fibre-based optical imaging and spectroscopy techniques in proof-of-concept applications, early-stage ex vivo models and clinical trials, and is aided by having strong links to highly interdisciplinary teams involving working directly with clinicians, chemists, biologists and engineers to develop practical applications for healthcare.
Katjana comes from a background in optical physics - with a Diploma in Physics from the University of Potsdam (Germany) in collaboration with InnoFSPEC and the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on characterising photonic lanterns and bespoke optical fibres for applications in astronomy. Her PhD project was a collaboration between the PHI group at HWU and the EPSRC IRC Proteus project at the University of Edinburgh. She explored the use of time-resolved photon detection for applications in lung disease diagnostics, mainly developing fibre-based sensing platforms for Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy. The project was aided by exploiting advanced integrated silicon CMOS single photon detector arrays for fluorescence lifetime and Raman spectroscopy. Afterwards, she took a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medical Device Design and Integration withing the Translational Healthcare Technology Group of Prof. Kevin Dhaliwal at the Centre for Inflammation Research developing a prototype fibre-optic imaging and sensing platform for the detection and diagnosis of pulmonary lung nodules.