Achieving Reagent-Free Blood Analysis With Optical Spectroscopy

A Q&A with Olga Pawluczyk, President and CEO, P&P Optica

P&P Optica Inc. (Waterloo, ON, Canada) burst onto the optical spectroscopy scene earlier this year after receiving a major technology development award from the Canadian government. The company is using the funding to fast-track its capabilities in designing and building VPH (volume phase holographic) spectrometers into a new family of high-resolution optical analyzers.

Olga Pawluczyk, president of P&P Optica, is one of the key innovators involved in the success of the company's technology. An engineer by training, Pawluczyk became the third employee of P&P Optica in 2001, following completion of her master's degree in medical biophysics. The company was then focused on optical consulting and fiber optics for spectroscopy. By 2004, the company had doubled in size and spun off its optical cabling business into an independent entity. Pawluczyk assumed majority ownership of P&P Optica and repositioned the firm as a supplier of high-performance, gel grating-based, dispersive optical spectrometers.

P&P Optica has developed a sensitive non-scanning optical spectrometer that enables users to determine the chemical composition of substances that were previously detectable only through mass spectrometry. The firm's instruments are capable of measuring both broadband and Raman spectra, and they enable researchers to use multichannel or high-throughput modes to detect signals previously undetectable by non-scanning optical systems.

In this Q&A, Pawluczyk introduces us to a new spectroscopy-based approach to reagent-free blood analysis that her company is in the final stages of developing. She explains how the technology works, discusses the impact it will have on the blood analysis market, and explores future applications for it in the biomedical arena.