2023-08-15 20:10:00
Medical X-ray, CT, MRI and ultrasound imaging provides healthcare professionals with unique insights and a better understanding of what is going on inside a patient’s body. Through various waveforms, these machines can visualize many invisible ailments and diseases.
This imaging allows medical professionals to make correct diagnoses, but spectroscopy provides even more detail. Spectroscopy makes it possible to identify the biomolecules present in the samples thanks to their characteristic signature of absorption in the electromagnetic spectrum.
Today, researchers from the School of Engineering of theUBC Okanagan want to go further in diagnostic imaging.
Recognizing the benefits of imaging and spectroscopy, researchers at UBCO’s Integrated Optics Laboratory (IOL) are developing imaging systems that use terahertz radiation. Terahertz radiation is in the electromagnetic spectrum, with frequencies between radio waves and visible waves.
This paves the way for fast and accurate terahertz characterizations of biological specimens and may ultimately contribute to the creation of effective technologies for cancer detection.
“By working with terahertz radiation, we are able to glean details about the underlying characteristics of biological specimens.“, explains Alexis Guidi, a master’s student at the School of Engineering and main author of a new study published in Scientific Reports. “This insight comes from the nature of terahertz radiation, which is intimately sensitive to the biomolecular composition of cells.“.
Nevertheless, according to Jonathan Holzman, principal investigator of the IOL and professor of electrical engineering, the development of these terahertz systems poses pressing problems.
The characteristics of terahertz radiation that make it an effective probe for biomolecules, in terms of long wavelengths, also make it difficult to focus and resolve images. Our recent work has solved this problem by demonstrating that terahertz spectroscopy can offer near cellular-scale resolution.”
The researchers plan to apply their findings to emerging areas of medical diagnostics, with a particular focus on carcinogenesis, the process by which healthy cells become cancerous.
The research is partially funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Western Economic Diversification Canada.
Key illustration caption: UBCO researchers Jonathan Holzman and Alexis Guidi explore the potential of terahertz radiation to improve the quality of medical diagnostic imaging.
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