Super microscope gives new insight into cancer

Published on Saturday 14 February 2009 18:43

SCIENTISTS hope to pinpoint the exact causes of cancer and other genetic diseases in the cells of the human body using one of the world's most powerful microscopes.

Researchers at Dundee University have begun work using a new super-resolution microscope that can see up to three times more detail than conventional microscopes and can view tiny particles in cells.

The technology will allow them to watch cancer cells replicate and the team hope to contribute to cancer treatments within a few years, working with Dundee's cancer research programme and the rest of the Scottish scientific community.

Images taken with the OMX (optical microscopy experimental microscope) already reveal previously invisible detail of cell structures as cervical cancer cells replicate.

The hope is that the new microscope will allow cancer researchers to explore far deeper into cell structures to determine precisely what is going wrong, and observe what happens in real time.

The 400,000 microscope is one of only seven in the world. Professor Jason Swedlow, Wellcome Trust senior research fellow at Dundee University's, College of Life Sciences, said using the OMX microscope was like "putting on glasses" to allow scientists to see for the first time exactly what goes wrong in cancer cells.

"We are studying how those cancer cells are growing and we can highlight particular genes that we think might be important, and we can see where certain molecules are concentrated," he said. "Because we can see the molecules more clearly, we have a better idea of what they are doing and what goes wrong.

"Ultimately what we want to be able to do is provide treatments for cancer and contribute to that knowledge and to how genetic diseases occur and whether there is any possibility of intervention. I would hope that we are able to make major contributions in the next few years."

The microscope works by taking many different cross-section images of the specimen and then reconfiguring them to create a detailed full image. It also has very fast cameras and shutters capable of acquiring 100 images per second and can move up and down in steps only 1/10,000th of a millimetre deep.

The microscope was funded by the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and scientists from across Scotland will be able to access it.

Professor Sir David Lane, Cancer Research UK's chief scientist based at the University of Dundee, said: "This is an exciting acquisition for the University of Dundee and great news for cancer research in the UK."