Revolutionary view for research

Thanks to the innovation of one Australian company, biopsies may become a thing of the past.

Optiscan, a pioneer in microscopic imaging technologies for clinical and pre-clinical research applications, has launched the FIVE1, a handheld microscope that allows in-vivo - inside an organism - tissue imaging in real time.

Already used by leading gastroenterologists and surgeons, the Optiscan-developed technology is designed for a range of pre-clinical applications in the important areas of stem cell research, tissue regeneration and development of cancer therapies.

A key advantage of the FIVE1 is its small size, which allows researchers to enter the body of a patient or animal and examine tissue with ultra-high magnification and unparalleled clarity in places unreachable by conventional means.

"Doctors and researchers can see what is happening in real time. They can see blood vessels, cell structure and other tissue detail that allows them to draw meaningful conclusions from what they see," said Optiscan CEO Vicki Tutungi.

In China, Optiscan has partnered with two distributors - Chilong Healthcare International Ltd in Beijing (www.chilong.com.cn) for the northern regions and Shanghai Neihu Co Ltd (www.shnh.com.cn) for the southern regions.

"This is quite an extraordinary technology that has astounded all of the researchers that we have presented it to," said Zhao Guangyu of Chilong Healthcare.

Meanwhile, Arthur Hsieh of Shanghai Neihu Company believes "the range of new applications that are opened up by the technology will allow Chinese researchers to be much more productive in their work and will lead to more publications from Chinese researchers in international journals."

The burgeoning biotechnology industry in China plays a major role in Optiscan's expansion plans as Tutungi acknowledges the excellent research capabilities of Chinese universities and laboratories.

"We are so impressed with the quality of research coming out of China," she says. "They are at the cutting edge of so many different research fields today and we would love to see some of the world class research coming out of China using Optiscan's technology." www.optiscan.com

(China Daily 08/07/2008 page40)