Diseases May Soon be Diagnosed Using a Smartphone With Nanotech Imaging Tool That Can Fit on the Lens of a Tiny Camera

A research team has devised a low-cost microscopic imaging device, small enough that it can fit on the lens of a smartphone camera, with the ability to make a mobile medical diagnosis of diseases accessible, not to mention, accessible.

As specified in a Phys.org report, the study by scientists at the University of Melbourne and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems is helping miniaturize phase-imaging technology with the use of metasurface, which are just a few hundred nanometers thick, roughly 350 times thinner compared to the thickness of a human hair, hence tiny enough to fit in the lens of a smartphone or other tiny cameras.

The detection of illnesses frequently depends on optical microscope technology to examine changes in biological cells.

At present, these investigation approaches typically involve staining the cells using chemicals in a laboratory environment and utilizing specialized "phase-imaging" microscopes.

Early-Stage Detection of Illnesses

These seek to make unseen aspects of biological cells visual, so early-stage detection of illness becomes plausible.

Nevertheless, phase-imaging microscopes are bulky, not to mention expensive as they cost thousands of dollars, putting them out of reach of remote medical practices.

As indicated in the study published in the ACS Photonics journal, on top of providing resources for remote medical practices, this new approach could one day result in at-home disease detection, where the patient could obtain his own specimen through a pinprick of blood or saliva, and then transfer an image to a laboratory anywhere in the world. The laboratory could then examine and diagnose the disease.

'Metasurfaces' Similar to the Expensive Phase-Imaging Microscopes

According to the University of Melbourne's Dr. Lukas Wesemann, similar to the costly phase-imaging microscopes, the metasurfaces can control the light that passes through them to make otherwise unseen aspects of objects such as live biological cells seen.

Wesemann explained that they manufactured their metasurface with a range of tiny nanoprods on a flat surface, arranged in such a way as to turn a light's invisible property known as its "phases" into a normal image seen in the human eye, or conventional cameras.

Suh phase-imaging metasurfaces are creating high contrast, pseudo-3D images minus the need for computer post-processing.

Making medical diagnostic devices tinier, more cost-efficient, and portable will help disadvantaged nations gain access to healthcare that is presently only available to developed and first-world countries.

Ann Roberts, co-author, TMOS chief investigator, and professor at the University of Melbourne said it was an exciting breakthrough in this "field of phase-imaging."

It is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how metasurfaces will fully reimagine conventional optics and result in a new generation of miniaturized devices.

Phase-imaging, according to the Parks Systems site is also known as Phase Detection Microscopy or PDM. It is another approach that can be used to map variations in surface properties like adhesion, elasticity, and friction.

Related information about nanotechnology used for curing, diagnosing diseases is shown on SLICE's YouTube video below:

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