This new technology could allow people to use the camera on their smartphone to diagnose diseases.
Image: TMOS
Research published today in ACS Photonics from researchers at the University of Melbourne and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), is helping miniaturise phase-imaging technology using metasurfaces, which are only a few hundred nanometres thick – about 350 times thinner than the thickness of a human hair – thus small enough to fit in the lens of a smartphone or other small camera.
The detection of diseases often relies on optical microscope technology to investigate changes in biological cells. Currently, these investigation methods usually involve staining the cells with chemicals in a laboratory environment as well as using specialised ‘phase-imaging’ microscopes. These aim to make invisible aspects of a biological cell visible, so early-stage detection of disease becomes possible. However, phase-imaging microscopes are bulky and cost thousands of dollars, putting them out of reach of remote medical practices.
In addition to providing resources for remote medical practices, this new technology could one day lead to at-home disease detection, where the patient could obtain their own specimen through saliva or a pinprick of blood, and then transmit an image to a laboratory anywhere in the world. The lab could then analyse and diagnose the illness.
Lead researcher, University of Melbourne Dr Lukas Wesemann said similar to expensive phase-imaging microscopes, these metasurfaces can manipulate the light passing through them to make otherwise invisible aspects of objects like live biological cells visible.
“We manufactured our metasurface with an array of tiny rods – nanorods – on a flat surface, arranged in such a way as to turn an invisible property of light, called its ‘phase’, into a normal image visible to the human eye, or conventional cameras,” Dr Wesemann said.
“These phase-imaging metasurfaces create high contrast, pseudo-3D images without the need for computer post-processing.
“Making medical diagnostic devices smaller, cheaper and more portable will help disadvantaged regions gain access to healthcare that is currently only available to first world countries.”
Co-author, TMOS Chief Investigator and University of Melbourne Professor Ann Roberts, said it was an exciting breakthrough in the field of phase-imaging.
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how metasurfaces will completely reimagine conventional optics and lead to a new generation of miniaturised devices.”
Original Article: New nanotech imaging tool may allow smartphone disease diagnosis
More from: University of Melbourne
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Smartphone disease diagnosis
- 3 women got HIV after ‘vampire facials’: CDC explains how it happened
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new information about an Albuquerque spa that was shut down by health regulators after clients were infected with HIV.
- Using your cell phone to detect heart trouble
STARKVILLE - An assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Mississippi State University has come up with an app that lets people use their cell phones to detect the body's natural ...
- AI tool recognizes serious ocular disease in horses
Colloquially known as moon blindness, equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is an inflammatory ocular disease in horses, which can lead to blindness or loss of the affected eye. It is one of the most common ...
- How smartphone ban in schools impacts students: Study
Given such cases, several European countries, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands, and France, have imposed a ban on smartphones in schools. According to a study by the Norwegian ...
- The Internet Has Made Health Anxiety Worse Than Ever
I was confused because the opportunities for me to use the internet to research my recent diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a kind of blood cancer, were minimal anyway. I didn’t own a smartphone or a ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Smartphone disease diagnosis
[google_news title=”” keyword=”smartphone disease diagnosis” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Phase-imaging metasurfaces
- Imaging the microstructural landscape of amorphous carbons
Prof. Wu HengAn's team from the University of Science and Technology of China has presented six representative phases of amorphous carbons based on large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, ...
- Flat optics revolutionize quantum light sources for enhanced communication and sensing
Flat optical elements, such as metasurfaces, are surfaces patterned with subwavelength-scale nanostructures that can control the amplitude, phase, polarization ... quantum communication and quantum ...
- New metasurface innovation unlocks precision control in wireless signals
Researchers have unveiled a technology that propels the field of wireless communication forward. This cutting-edge design, termed a reconfigurable transmissive metasurface, utilizes a synergistic ...
- Gigahertz-rate switchable wavefront shaping by LNOI-empowered metasurface
Over the past decade, metasurfaces deploying two-dimensional artificial nanostructures have emerged as a groundbreaking platform to manipulate light across various degrees of freedom. These ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Phase-imaging metasurfaces
[google_news title=”” keyword=”phase-imaging metasurfaces” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]