BRITElab (Bioimaging Research and Innovation for Translational Engineering Laboratory)
Professor Brendan Kennedy
BRITElab (Bioimaging Research and Innovation for Translational Engineering Laboratory)
Professor Brendan Kennedy
Profile
Professor Kennedy is Group Leader of the Bioimaging Research and Innovation for Translational Engineering Lab (BRITElab) at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and is also Full Professor in the School of Engineering at The University of Western Australia (UWA). He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland.
Prof Kennedy received his bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering in 2001 and his PhD in 2006, both from Dublin City University, Ireland. His research focusses on the development of optical coherence tomography and optical elastography and their application in a range of fields, particularly in surgery, mechanobiology and tissue engineering. He has published one book, 16 book chapters and more than 120 peer-reviewed journal papers. Prof. Kennedy has delivered over 40 invited talks at national and international conferences. He has been Principal Investigator on competitive research funding of more than $15 million and industry-sponsored research contracts of over $5 million.
Prof Kennedy has won a number of awards including a West Australian 40under40 Award. In 2024, he was elected to Optica Fellow for “pioneering and significant contributions to the fields of optical elastography and biophotonics in general”.
Prof Kennedy is co-founder of OncoRes Medical, a start-up company developing novel optical imaging tools for use in surgery. He served as Chief Scientific Officer at OncoRes from 2016 to 2021. Prof Kennedy holds over 40 granted patents from eight patent families.
Brendan is a founding member of BioZone, an initiative at UWA aimed at convergent science to accelerate discovery and translation in biomedical and bioengineering research in Western Australia.
Selected Publications
1. M. Singh, M. S. Hepburn, B. F. Kennedy, K. Larin, “Optical coherence elastography”, Nature Reviews Methods Primers, In press, May 2025.
2. A. Mowla, M. S. Hepburn, J. Li, D. Vahala, S. E. Amos, L. M. Hirvonen, R. W. Sanderson, P. Wijesinghe, S. Maher, Y. S. Choi, B. F. Kennedy, “Multimodal mechano-microscopy reveals mechanical phenotypes of breast cancer spheroids in three dimensions” APL Bioengineering, vol. 8, pp. 036113, 2024.
3. K. L. Metzner, Q. Fang, R. W. Sanderson, Y. L. Yeow, C. Green, F. Abdul-Aziz, J. Hamzah, A. Mowla and B. F. Kennedy, “A novel stress sensor enables accurate estimation of micro-scale tissue mechanics in quantitative micro-elastography”, APL Bioengineering, vol. 8, pp. 036115, 2024.
4. P. Gong, S. L. Chin, W. M. Allen, H. Ballal, J. D. Anstie, L. Chin, H. M. Ismail, R. Zilkens, D. D. Lakhiani, M. McCarthy, Q. Fang, D. Firth, K. Newman, C. Thomas, J. Li, R. W. Sanderson, K. Y. Foo, C. Yeomans, B. F. Dessauvagie, B. Latham, C. M. Saunders, and B. F. Kennedy, “Quantitative micro-elastography enables in vivo detection of residual cancer in the surgical cavity during breast-conserving surgery”, Cancer Research, vol. 82, no. 21, pp. 4093-4104, 2022.
5. K. M. Kennedy, R. Zilkens, W. M. Allen, K. Y. Foo, Q. Fang, Lixin Chin, R. W. Sanderson, J. Anstie, P. Wijesinghe, A. Curatolo, H. E. I. Tan, N. Morin, B. Kunjuraman, C. Yeomans, S. L. Chin, H. DeJong, K. Giles, B. F. Dessauvagie, B. Latham, C. M. Saunders, and B. F. Kennedy, “Diagnostic Accuracy of Quantitative Micro-Elastography for Margin Assessment in Breast-Conserving Surgery”, Cancer Research, vol. 80, 1773-1783, 2020.
6. B. F. Kennedy, P. Wijesinghe and D. D. Sampson, “The emergence of optical elastography in biomedicine”, Nature Photonics, vol 11, 2017.
7. W. J. Hadden, J. L. Young, A. W. Holle, M. L. McFetridge, D. Y. Kim, P. Wijesinghe, H. Taylor-Weiner, J. H. Wen, A. R. Lee, K. Bieback, B-N Vo, D. D. Sampson, B. F. Kennedy, J. P. Spatz, A. J. Engler and Y. S. Choi, “Stem cell migration and mechanotransduction on linear stiffness gradient hydrogels”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 114, no. 24, pp. 5647-5652, 2017.
8. B. F. Kennedy, R. A. McLaughlin, K. M. Kennedy, L. Chin, P. Wijesinghe, A. Curatolo, A. Tien, M. Ronald, B. Latham, C. M. Saunders, and D. D. Sampson, “Investigation of optical coherence micro-elastography as a method to visualize cancers in human breast tissue”, Cancer Research, vol. 75, no. 16, 2015.
9. K. M. Kennedy, L. Chin, R. A. McLaughlin, B. Latham, C. M. Saunders, D. D. Sampson, B. F. Kennedy, “Quantitative micro-elastography: imaging of tissue elasticity using compression optical coherence elastography”, Scientific Reports, vol. 5, 2015.
10. B. F. Kennedy, S-H. Koh, R. A. McLaughlin, K. M. Kennedy, P. R. T. Munro, and D. D. Sampson, “Strain estimation in phase-sensitive optical coherence elastography,” Biomedical Optics Express., vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 1865-1879, 2012.
Review Prof Kennedy’s full list of publications at Google Scholar.
