Under licence, Nikon Metrology UK has incorporated the technology into a prototype security scanner. This is currently being tested and further developed to provide enhanced threat detection against weapons and explosives concealed, for example, in baggage. Building on the EPSRC-funded work, a new three-year project supported by Wellcome will see the Nikon Metrology/UCL team develop a prototype scanner for use during breast cancer surgery in collaboration with Barts Health and Queen Mary University of London. The aim is to help surgeons determine the exact extent of the malignancy and to reduce the need to recall patients for further operations, resulting in more effective breast conservation surgery, less need for full mastectomies and more rapid treatment.

The technology can even detect some tissue types invisible to conventional X-ray machines, such as cartilage, and plans are proceeding to set up a spin out company to take this aspect towards commercialization.

Now, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes have commissioned a meta-analysis of all the evidence available to assess and summarize the benefits of the Portfolio diet for preventing cardiovascular disease. The first author of the new paper is Laura Chiavaroli, from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto in Canada, and the findings were published in the journal Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases.

Specifically, the Portfolio diet recommends a daily intake of 42 grams of nuts, 20 grams of soluble fiber, 2 grams of plant sterols, and 50 grams of plant protein. The amounts are based on a daily consumption of 2,000 calories. Chiavaroli and colleagues examined randomized and non-randomized controlled trials that studied the effect of this dietary pattern “in comparison to any energy-matched diet that did not provide components of the Portfolio diet.”

The authors conclude, “Current evidence demonstrates that the Portfolio dietary pattern leads to clinically meaningful improvements in [LDL cholesterol] as well as other established cardiometabolic risk factors and estimated 10-year coronary heart disease risk.” Study co-author Dr. Hana Kahleova, Ph.D. — the director of clinical research for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine — comments on the findings.