HISTORY OF THE LAB
Our Laboratory of medical & physics research has a short own history within MONIKI institute yet, approximately 15 years only. However as a large and multiprofile center of medical science which is on the front line of scientific research, MONIKI in its structure throughout all contemporary history, since 1960th years, had not only specialized medical department or clinical-diagnostic laboratories, but also it included a number of experimental technical divisions which are necessary for development of medical equipment of the institute as well as to solve scientific and practical problems of medicine, which are located on a boundary between physics, technology and medicine. As an example of such divisions we can mark created in 1965 in the radiology department of MONIKI the physical-dosimetric laboratory. In 1970-1982 when intensively various radio-electronic, television and electronic-computing devices have started to take root into clinical practice, at institute actively functioned both laboratory of medical electronics (headed by Ph.D., MD E.J.Eskin) and automation laboratory (headed by A.Koryakov), subsequently formed a basis for creation of incorporated laboratory of automation and electronics, and later – the laboratory of medical cybernetics and a department of computer technologies. Here it is also necessary to mention the existed in the mid-eighties on the basis of MONIKI joint with Moscow Radio-Technical Institute named after academician A.L.Minz of Russian Academy of Science (MRTI) laboratory of medical radio-electronics (headed from MRTI by V.I.Rechitsky), which has played a key role in the late eighties years in development of laser technologies in MONIKI and promoting occurrence in 1989 inside MONIKI the specialized laboratory of «Laser medicine» by association of "laser" medical group of the laboratory of "Experimental and clinical pathophysiology" and a group of laser engineers of the joint with MRTI laboratory of medical radio-electronics.
From the problems of application of lasers in medicine, since occurrence in 1989 in MONIKI the laboratory of "Laser medicine" headed by Ph.D., MD, Prof. M.T.Aleksandrov originates, to some extent, all scientific life of all our laboratory. M.Aleksandrov's work and a work of his research assistant at that time Ph.D., Dmitry A. Rogatkin in 1990th have been concentrated on problems of development of new methods and devices for laser clinical biophotometry (biospectrophotometry) - such originally name had this diagnostic direction in our country. After Aleksandrov's dismissal in 1996 the laboratory of "Laser medicine" as a serious scientific division has actually ceased to exist, but investigations have been continued by Dr. Dmitry Rogatkin on the basis of radiological department and by Dr. Ludmila Lapaeva on a base of endoscopic department of the institute together with doctors and research assistants of these and other divisions of MONIKI. More in detail - see our article (here, PDF, 460K, Russian version only, sorry) "Laboratory of medical-physical research and laser technologies at MONIKI named after M.F.Vladimirskiy", published in the bulletin of Laser Association of Russia (LAR) "Laser-inform" No.23 (422) in December 2009 as well as in a collection book by LAR "As it was" (second edition) in 2010. During the period of 1996-2004 a lot of efforts of the specified scientific group at MONIKI headed by Dr. Dmitry Rogatkin were aimed on creation of new methods and devices for the biophotometry (reflectance tissues oximeter "Spectrotest", laser multifunctional diagnostic systems "LAZDICOM" and "LAKK-M" etc.), and also on structural division of all problems of further developments of this scientific direction on subsections and subdirections as follows:
- Scientifically-engineering bases of creation, design and development of hardware and software of diagnostic devices and systems;
- Mathematical modeling of distribution of laser radiation in light-scattering biological tissues and media;
- Development of multifunctional laser diagnostic systems, which combine various methods of noninvasive medical spectrophotometry inside a single hardware;
- Clinical techniques of application of the laser diagnostic methods and devices as well as techniques of interpretation of the diagnostic results.
In the end of XX - and in the beginning of the XXI-st centuries among the advanced, high technology and promising medical technologies began to designate itself such interdisciplinary and new scientific directions as cells technology, digital visualization and processing of medical images, medical nanotechnologies, medical robots, etc. Commonwealth of medicine, physics and other physics-technical sciences in many countries began to jump on a new level of the systemic, deeply integrated and continuously interacting state for resolving of large, fundamental scientific problems which were earlier impossible to solve by efforts of only doctors, biologists or physicists. The new scientific direction – non-ionizing radiating medical physics in which problems, instead of traditional problems of physics of ionizing radiation and radiating dozimetry, problems of not radiating medicine and biophysics began to join appears and became independent: the studying of weak natural physical fields in a human body, problems of physical and mathematical modeling of processes in bodies and systems of the person, a problem of development of new noninvasive methods of diagnostics on the basis of laser and nanotechnologies, etc. Therefore, since January 2009 in the structure of MONIKI based on the initiative of the deputy director on scientific work, prof. V.I.Shumsky and the Director of the institute, the correspondent member of the Russian Academy of Medical Science, prof. G.A.Onoprienko have occurred respective alterations and on the basis of closed by that time two laboratories «Laser medicine» and «Experimental and clinical pathophysiology» which have lost their scientific mission by means of the order No. 563 from 27.10.2008 the new Laboratory «Medical and physical research» was organized. The Laboratory was headed by the leading expert on medical physics and laser diagnostic technologies at MONIKI, Ph.D., Sci. Dr. Dmitry Rogatkin. At present, the laboratory of medical-physics research is one of the leading scientific divisions in the institute, producing in some years up to 30% of scientific outputs of the institute. As one knows, it is the first and unique in our country the profile medical-physics laboratory created inside the large scientific medical center for specialization in the field of non-ionizing radiation medical physics.
For the first 10 years from the moment of the laboratory establishment, a normal work of a vivarium of MONIKI was restored (it was a part of our laboratory that time), 78 contracts on scientific and technical cooperation with leading institutions of Russian State Academy of Sciences (Institute of Applied Physics, Institute of Problems of Laser and Information Technology, Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, etc.), with leading higher education institutions (the Moscow State University, MIPT, etc.), as well as with other scientific institutions and organizations were signed. In a frame of a budget financing (State contracts), together with different clinics of MONIKI 69 various research fragments and full-fledged R&D projects of the fundamental and applied plan were executed. 19 scientific grants, including 1 international grant in a frame of the European FP-7 Program, were won. 18 contracts were signed and successfully completed with various Russian and foreign enterprises of real sectors of the economy. 24 patents for inventions were received. 128 scientific articles were published, 45 of which are indexed in the international databases Scopus and Web of Science. For the first 10 years, main directions of our research in the Laboratory became: NMS - a noninvasive medical spectrophotometry (noninvasive laser diagnostics), safety of nanotechnologies, methods of regenerative medicine, bioresorbable polymeric materials for medicine, and also the theory of service medical robots (SMR). Because all these studies in our laboratory have complex and a real multidisciplinary character, a personnel structure of our laboratory consists in both skilled and new young specialists of the most different profile: doctors, biophysics, biologists, medical physicists, medical equipment engineers, etc. It is possible to examine a character of the executed projects, its results and our publications in appropriate sections of the website in more detail.
In 2020 the Laboratory became a part of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Research of the Institute in a frame of a campaign to enlarge the structural divisions of MONIKI. At the beginning of 2022, our vivarium and the vivarium staff were separated from the laboratory into a separate structural unit of the Experimental and Clinical Research Department. From 2021 the number of scientific departments at the institute was reduced. In particular, the department of radiology was closed, on the basis of which for many years studies were carried out to predict the effectiveness of radiation therapy and chemoradiation treatment of malignant neoplasms of the oral cavity using non-invasive laser diagnostic methods. The occupational pathology department was repurposed for just conventional therapy, on the basis of which microcirculation processes were studied. In fact, as a scientific department, the physiotherapy department has disappeared. Accordingly, the number of scientific topics and interaction with the clinical departments of MONIKI for our laboratory also decreased. Scientific directions of nanotechnology safety and regenerative medicine were closed. Research work in departments of endoscopy, pediatric surgery, and ophthalmology ceased. Accordingly, the number of scientific topics and interaction with real clinical departments of MONIKI for our Laboratory has also decreased. Therefore, in recent years, the laboratory has focused its efforts on the development and justification of the complex diagnostic technology "Vasotest" for assessing the state of blood vessels and parameters of central and peripheral hemodynamics (with the departments of endocrinology, cardiovascular surgery and cardiology), on studying the problem of scars and choosing the minimum erythemal dose in dermatology, on fundamental scientific research on the theory of light transport and scattering in turbid media, on the problem of metrology in NMS, as well as on the study of the possibility of creating intelligent robotic devices with elements of self-awareness, i.e. such medical robotic systems, in particular service medical robots, which are not inferior in their functionality to humans and animals.