Painless, non-invasive cancer biopsies
The use of smart laser technology could make biopsies of the future painless and non-invasive, a U.S. researchers says.
Study leader Marcos Dantus of Michigan State University in East Lansing and Sunney Xie of Boston’s Harvard University suggest the new technology could make it possible to determine on the spot if a skin mole is malignant rather than surgically taking a biopsy and waiting for lab results.
This new molecule-selective technology uses laser microscopes to deploy rapid, ultra-short pulses to identify molecules.
“Smart lasers allow us to selectively excite compounds — even ones with small spectroscopic differences, we can shape the pulse of the lasers, excite one compound or another based on their vibrational signatures and this gives us excellent contrast,” Dantus says in a statement. Dantus points out additional potential applications include allowing researchers to closely examine how compounds penetrate skin and hair. Other applications may include identifying how drugs penetrate tissue and how drugs and tissue interact.This could help identify drug side effects more quickly.
“The ability to image with molecular specificity and sensitivity opens a number of applications in medicine as well as in homeland security,” Dantus says in a statement.
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