The always evolving world of technology has now made its mark on optical lab instrument and the equipment being used in research laboratories today. Xi-Cheng Zhang, a professor of science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a team of researchers have designed a diagnostic tool that is able to project images of biological tissue with the use of single pulses of terahertz (THz or T-ray) radiation, making diagnostic time of medical diseases from days to just minutes and can be done right in the clinician’s office.

The scientists used a combination of T-rays with a technique they developed that is able to deliver single picosecond-long blasts or pulses of light. This allows the better and more rapid imaging results when applied to biological tissue in optical lab instrument that is often used as diagnostic tools in hospital laboratories.

This special influence of the THz radiation allows scientists, researchers and medical technologists to see the biological tissues farther and more in depth. It is even deemed to be a better optical lab instrument than the x-rays, ultrasound and radar imaging that we are so familiar with. The T-rays are reputed to provide better and clearer images of skin, and tooth cavities. It has the potential to be the frontrunner of diagnostic tools when it comes to skin and breast cancer as well. The T-rays can replace or be an alternative diagnostic tool to mammography, as it can detect or view underground toxins better. The T-rays can also improve the enhancement of DNA and RNA mapping.

Zhang states that the idea for enhanced optical lab instrument such as the T-rays is to fully automate the analysis of these images. They hope that the new process can lead to new or upgraded diagnostic equipment that will be more useful and profitable to laboratories and hospitals around the world, because aside from the chirped probe, the new process offers highly detailed images of the biological specimens, even if the patient moves during the procedure, which gives it an advantage over x-ray, ultrasound and radiography equipment that we are currently using, as the patient is required to be perfectly still during the procedures and can often be difficult.

The process of obtaining images using the T-rays is quite simple. For example, an image of a skin can tumor would be put together by using multiple T-ray images at various angles, making a biologically accurate 3-D image. The researcher or diagnostician can use this 3-D picture to better understand the specimen and to see how far it has spread to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.

This technology cannot be only applied to optical lab instrument and has some potential in industrial applications as well, especially in package inspection in airports and ports of travel. It can also be applied in quality control in the manufacturing industry. The research has received grants totaling to more than $7 million from the National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, and Department of Energy. Diagnostic tools are improved and enhanced with these kinds of researches that are aimed to improve them. Read the entire article