Optical microscope with world's fastest camera
(July 7, 2012) The ability
to distinguish and isolate rare cells from among a large population of assorted
cells has become increasingly important for the early detection of disease and
for monitoring disease treatments.
Circulating
cancer tumor cells are a perfect example. Typically, there are only a handful
of them among a billion healthy cells, yet they are precursors to metastasis,
the spread of cancer that causes about 90 percent of cancer mortalities. Such
"rogue" cells are not limited to cancer — they also include stem
cells used for regenerative medicine and other cell types.
"To catch these
elusive cells, the camera must be able to capture and digitally process
millions of images continuously at a very high frame rate," said Bahram
Jalali, who holds the Northrop Grumman Endowed Opto-Electronic Chair in
Electrical Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science. "Conventional CCD and CMOS cameras are not fast and
sensitive enough. It takes time to read the data from the array of pixels, and
they become less sensitive to light at high speed."
Unfortunately, detecting such cells is difficult. Achieving
good statistical accuracy requires an automated, high-throughput instrument
that can examine millions of cells in a reasonably short time. Microscopes
equipped with digital cameras are currently the gold standard for analyzing
cells, but they are too slow to be useful for this application.
Now, a new optical microscope developed by UCLA engineers
could make the tough task a whole lot easier.