Medical Imaging Technology is Like "Google Maps" for the Human Body
Researchers from Australia's University of New South Wales, collaborating with German optical measurement manufacturer Zeiss, are using semiconductor technology to zoom through organs of the human body - down to the level of a single cell. The novel imaging technology, created by Zeiss, was originally developed to scan silicon wafers for defects. UNSW biomedical engineering professor Melissa Knothe Tate is leading the project, which is using the technology to explore osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Using Google algorithms, Tate can zoom in and out from the scale of the whole joint down to the cellular level "just as you would with Google Maps," reducing to "a matter of weeks analyses that once took 25 years to complete." Her team is also using cutting-edge microtome and MRI technology to examine how movement and weight bearing affects the movement of molecules within joints, exploring the relationship between blood, bone, lymphatics, and muscle.
Transcript
00:00:07 [Music] we're working on what you might call a Google Maps for the body we're using a similar approach as satellite imagery for the first time we're able to go for instance from the whole knee down to the level of a single cell inhabiting the knee to understand how it gets its nutrition and how it's all connected together with computer models these data
00:00:28 will enable us to understand how different health and disease conditions affect the joint over time saving us thousands of experiments our previous work has shown us that an osteoporosis you get this incredible loss of connectivity in your cells and this has huge implications for bone health this is something we haven't been able to do before connect the cell's Health to a
00:00:49 debilitating disease like osteoporosis the end point is to find preventative and natural measures to slow down degeneration with age and to speed up healing 10 years ago it was a dream to be able to see cells in this way in their natural environment we're literally mapping A Better Health future for us as we age