OST and UZH achieve quantum leap in cellular imaging
Rapperswil-Jona/Zurich/Dornbirn - The OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences has developed an innovative cellular measurement laser in a close collaboration with the University of Zurich (UZH) and Prospective Instruments. This device makes it possible to visualize biological activity in living cells at a previously unattainable speed.
(CONNECT) An instrument has been created at OST that comes closer to generating images of cellular activity in living organisms than any other before. Together with the Bruno Weber Lab at the University of Zurich and Prospective Instruments, a company from Austria, the IMES Institute for Microelectronics, Embedded Systems and Sensors at OST has developed a photon-counting system that sets new standards in biomedical imaging and represents a quantum leap, as was outlined in a statement from OST.
The new system makes it possible to examine cellular activity in a high resolution directly on screen. For this, the team further developed FLIM, standing for fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, an established imaging technique. Now, rapid processes in the brain can be measured better than ever before. “The instrument built for us by OST is essentially a very fast stopwatch that can measure light in time frames during which it only travels a few centimeters,” says Dr Luca Ravotto from UZH. This new technology is reportedly not only more precise, but also more robust under high light intensity and significantly more cost-effective than existing systems.
“There are metabolic processes or other mechanisms that can indicate whether a cell is healthy or pathological,” explains Prof. Dr Bruno Weber from the Bruno Weber Lab at UZH. “And this differentiation is, of course, important for the surgeon during the operation – not an hour later.”
In its explanatory video, OST notes it takes the new instrument between 10 seconds and one minute to complete a FLIM image. But this is not enough for the researchers: “Our goal is definitely to become much faster,” says IMES Project Lead Prof. Dr Paul Zbinden. “The idea would be to have real-time imaging – so that surgeons in the operating room can see in real time whether all tumor cells have been removed.”
This would make something previously almost unconceivable a reality: FLIM videos. They could create a basis for numerous additional application options with smaller devices, such as intraoperative applications and diagnostic purposes. A follow-up project focused on real-time diagnostics is reportedly already in the pipeline. ce/mm