Professor Nick Stone is the co-theme lead for diagnostics and biomarker at the HealthTech Research Centre. Nick worked as a Consultant Medical Physicist for almost 20 years in the NHS. In 2012, he moved to academia to take up the position of Professor of Biomedical Imaging and Biosensing at the University of Exeter. Nick has worked throughout his career to pioneer optical diagnostics and therapies for the benefit of patients. He made the first Raman measurements in many types of cancers and has worked closely with clinical teams to understand the clinical need and when clinical decisions most need support from real-time, objective methods, based on the molecular changes associated with disease. Nick has led numerous projects working to translate Raman from the lab to the clinic, including endoscopic Raman for early cancer detection in hollow organs; smart Raman needles for solid organs; spatially offset Raman and transmission Raman for non-invasive probing of buried lesions. These have all used native molecular signals coupled with multivariate approaches and machine learning to predict disease pathology.
Nick has raised over £20 million grant income and led numerous large projects to explore novel diagnostics and therapeutics utilising the power of light. He held a prestigious five year National Institute of Health Research Senior Research Fellowship (at that time the only Physical Scientist to hold one). He is Chief Investigator for three first in human Medical Device trials translating my technologies from bench to bedside (funded by EPSRC and NIHR).
Nick has received a number of awards for his work, most recently the Institute of Physics – Rosalind Franklin Medal 2024, the International Federation of Applied Chemical and Spectroscopy Societies -Charles Mann Award, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine – Academic Gold Medal 2020 and the NHS Chief Scientific Officer’s – National R&D Award for 2009.
Nick has worked in national leadership roles in Medical Physics (Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine: Director of Science, (2009-2011); Vice President (Academic) and Chair of Academic Advisory Group to Council (2011-2014)) and sat on the board of various other societies: British Medical Laser Association, the Head and Neck Optical Diagnostics Society. Recently as a Founder Director he formed the International Society of Clinical Spectroscopy (CLIRSPEC).
Professor Nick Stone has been involved in the following projects and case studies
