Adelaide: The Australian
Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics is bringing
together physicists, biologists and chemists to develop ways of using light and
optical fibres to measure biological processes. Using light as a tool inside
biological systems is called biophotonics.
“With these new
tools, we will be able to measure things we have never been able to measure
before and look at significant health issues in completely new ways,” says
Centre Director Professor Mark Hutchinson. “We are creating new windows into
the body.”
These breakthrough
photonic technologies will impact three main areas of clinical need:
• The Spark of Life – sensing in and
around developing embryos for the best start in life;
• Origins of Sensation – understanding
the basis of pain by sensing inside the brain;
• Inside Blood Vessels – investigating
cardiovascular disease at the nanoscale and why blood vessels fail.
“Our new generation sensors, using the latest optical fibre
and nanotechnologies, will be able to see inside the reproductive tract at the
very start of life; see what’s happening in the brain as pain is registered;
and measure changes inside the vessels and cells of a heart as it beats,” says
Professor Hutchinson.