Bayden Wood

Bayden Wood is a Professor in the School of Chemistry at Monash University and Director of the Centre of Biospectroscopy. His research focuses on developing infrared and Raman spectroscopic technologies for point-of-care diagnostics, particularly for infectious diseases like malaria and sepsis. He leads projects in antimicrobial resistance, kidney disease detection, and cancer diagnosis using vibrational spectroscopy combined with AI algorithms.

Education & Research Interests: Specializes in FT-IR microspectroscopy, chemometrics, and spectroscopic applications in medical diagnostics. His work addresses global health challenges by creating low-cost diagnostic tools for remote areas and developing countries.

Recent Projects:

• Point-of-Site Malaria Detection using near-IR spectrometers (2023–2025)
• Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging Facility (2022–2023)
• Early Kidney Disease Detection via Infrared Spectroscopy (2022)

Publications: Over 250 peer-reviewed outputs, with recent focus on bacterial detection algorithms, malaria diagnostics, and spectroscopic innovations in clinical settings. His 2024 work on resazurin-based bacterial detection and 2023 freeze-dried blood cell analysis highlight his technical contributions.

Awards:

• Doreen Clark Medal (2014)
• Australian Synchrotron Collaborative Research Award (2021)

Grants & Teams: Principal Investigator on multiple grants totaling millions, collaborates widely with institutions like the Defence Science Institute and Diabetes Feet Australia. Leads interdisciplinary teams merging spectroscopy with machine learning.

Labs & Facilities: Oversees the Centre of Biospectroscopy lab, pioneering portable spectrometer designs and synchrotron-based FTIR analysis for live-cell studies.