New microscope measures and monitors live cells
Flat and efficient high-power lamps
The Illinois research team that created the new photonic crystal enhanced microscope include:( left to right) Yue Zhuo, Ji Sun Choi, Hojeong Yu, and faculty Brian Cunningham and Brendan Harley.
New microscope measures and monitors live cells
ECE and Bioengineering Professor Brian Cunningham has invented a novel live-cell imaging method that could someday help biologists better understand how stem cells transform into specialized cells and how diseases like cancer spread. The label-free Photonic Crystal Enhanced Microscope( PCEM) monitors and quantitatively measures cell-surface interactions, which are fundamental to things like wound healing, tissue development, tumor invasion, and cancer metastasis. One advantage of Cunningham’ s PCEM over conventional fluorescent dyes is that it will allow scientists to see how a protein or cell changes over time. Dyes, on the other hand, provide only several hours for cell examination and measurement due to photo bleaching, a process where the light dies out. Another advantage of PCEM is cost— it functions with an LED light source and an inexpensive photonic crystal biosensor made from titanium dioxide, which can be made for less than $ 1.
Source: Progress in Quantum Electronics,“ Quantitative imaging of cell membrane-associated effective mass density using Photonic Crystal Enhanced Microscopy,” volume 50, November 2016.
Flat and efficient high-power lamps
The vacuum ultraviolet( VUV) and UV regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are unique in that the energies of a single photon are comparable to, or exceed, the energies of most molecules. Accordingly, VUV photons are capable of initiating chemical reactions by breaking one or more molecular bonds, a process known as photochemistry. In the past, virtually no efficient and powerful sources of VUV radiation have been available, but a team led by ECE Professor J. Gary Eden and Adjunct Professor Sung-Jin Park has developed and commercialized a family of flat and efficient high-power lamps emitting at discrete wavelengths in the 170-350 nm interval. Eden and colleagues are applying these lamps to the production of ultrapure water for the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries, the disinfection of wounds and surgical fields( in collaboration with a medical team at Columbia University), and even the identification of synthetic diamonds.
Eden Park Illumination in Champaign manufactures this 10 cm x 10 cm lamp producing more than 25 W of power at 172 nm in the VUV spectral region. The thickness of the lamp is 6 mm.
micro + nanotechnology lab | 5 | 2016 highlights report