UKRI Innovation Fellowship: Next Generation Endoscopes. Multifunctional endoscopic pharmaceutical treatments for COVID-19

As part of these COVID-19 related activities the applicant is seeking urgent funding to rapidly push and translate their endoscopic device (Panoptes) into COVID-19 focussed clinical studies. It will be used in conjunction with optical imaging platforms developed at the University of Edinburgh. Together these will enable them to (i) understand how COVID-19 is causing lung damage and respiratory failure and (ii) rapidly screen and monitor promising pharmaceutical assets which are either repurposed or at an advanced stage with feasibility studies in patients. They are specifically seeking funds to expedite the Panoptes device through regulatory approval and improve, streamline and upscale the Panoptes manufacturing process. This will enable them to produce devices for clinical use and to carry out research using direct clinical feedback from initial interventions to further develop the Panoptes platform thus contributing a vital role in the research of the broader consortium into COVID-19.