Electro-optics in Service of Medicine

Nisan Ozana’s groundbreaking medical diagnostics research has awarded him the Wolf Foundation Prize

Although Nisan Ozana’s research focuses on electro optics, his recent study might actually help millions of people with health issues. “My research, conducted at the Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Zeev Zalevsky, monitors remote vibrations for the purpose of medical diagnostics. We use lasers and cameras, recording the returning light dispersion patterns and use it to analyze vibrations in nanometric resolution,” explains Ozana, 33. “This can be used for a wide range of applications. For instance, we can remotely take a patient’s vitals, and from that deduce his homodynamic. We were able to take some vitals of a patient such as breathing and heart rate who was in a closed room, with the medical equipment stationed a few meters away. In another experiment, we succeeded in using lasers and cameras to communicate with ALS patients. Our sensitive equipment enables us to identify the tiniest movements in paralyzed patients, for instance someone who can move only their eyes. For that achievement we were awarded a prize by the Prize4Life organization, aiming to develop a cure and better the lives of ALS patients.

This impressive achievement of Ozana’s, a married father of three, awarded him the Wolf Foundation Prize, given to excelling research by doctoral candidates. Additionally, Ozana received a grant from BSF (Prof. Rahamimoff Travel Grants Program for Young Scientists) enabling to continue his study of remote-monitoring brain activity at Yale University. And then there are the publications. “So far I have published about 20 articles, 10 of which are journal articles in which I am the lead author. Prof. Zalevsky and I are also in the process of patenting seven of our developments,” says Ozana.