Media

HKU advances new technology ATOM for early cancer detection

13 Feb 2014

 

In a multi-disciplinary research project led by the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has successfully developed a new optical microcopy approach which integrates existing fiber-optic and laser technologies, called Asymmetric-detection Time-stretch Optical Microscopy (ATOM) that can capture images of moving cells up to 10,000 times faster than existing camera technologies. This achieves unusually fast, more accurate and more efficient optical imaging of biological cells and will certainly benefit rare cancer cells detection and other high-throughput clinical diagnostics.

Traditionally, flow cytometry is used for counting and differentiating microscopic blood cells for medical diagnostics based on quantitative analysis without grasping the features of each cell. When incorporated with ATOM, it will become a valuable tool for studying the characteristics of individual cells in a very large population with high accuracy and efficiency. This technology can capture images of the ultrafast-moving living cells (such as blood cells) with cellular resolution in flow at a speed as high as 10 meters per second, which corresponds to an imaging throughput of 100,000 cells-per-second, and is 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than any existing CCD/CMOS camera technologies. Moreover, it can analyze massive data in a short period of time and can thus improve the accuracy of early cancer cells detection and post-treatment relapse monitoring.  As regards industrial application, this technique can potentially be used in "Web Inspection" and "Surface Inspection" for quality control.

The research group is led by Dr. Kevin Tsia Kin-man of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (also in Medical Engineering Program) with members including Dr. Anderson Shum Ho-cheung of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Kenneth Wong Kin-yip of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Professor Godfrey Chan Chi-fung of the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. A press conference will be held on February 20, 2014 (next Thursday) to introduce the key features of ATOM and its application in biomedical diagnostics and industry.

Details of the press conference are as follows:
Date: February 20, 2014 (next Thursday)
Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Venue: Room 601J, 6/F, Chow Yei Ching Building, The University of Hong Kong  
              (Conference room of Electrical and Electronic Engineering) (Map)

For media enquiries, please contact :
HKU Communication & Public Affairs Office Ms Trinni Choy (tel: 2859 2606 email: pychoy@hku.hk);
Ms Rhea Leung (tel: 2857 8555 email: rhea.leung@hku.hk) ; or
HKU Faculty of Engineering Ms Jolly Li (tel: 2241 5953 email: jollyli@hku.hk).