Diamond's latest beamline, B22, aiding early detection of cancer via InfraRed light

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first experimental station to use InfraRed light at the UK’s national synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source, has now started operation. With 14 out of the 16 operational beamlines at Diamond using intensely powerful X-rays to carry out experiments, the new InfraRed (IR) MicroSpectroscopy beamline (B22) is an exciting addition to the facility.

Scientists from Keele University and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire used Diamond’s new IR beamline to study lung cancer cells. This special light, which is the same as the kind in your TV remote but much brighter when generated by a synchrotron source, enabled the researchers to reveal the molecular composition of single cells.

Being able to “see” inside a cancerous cell on such a microscopic scale helps scientists in their search for the characteristic markers of cancer, and in the future could provide an easier, quicker and more objective way to classify tumor development in patients. Although on larger tissue samples some of these experiments are feasible in a standard laboratory, analysis at the single cell level is not possible using standard microscopes. Specifically for IR technique, these results would take an inadmissibly long time to achieve such quality of signal, and the spatial resolution would not be nearly as high as that with a synchrotron source like Diamond.

The ultimate aim of this research is to find and set up a method that could be used in hospitals, which applies IR light to detect early signs of cancer as an aid to diagnosis. Being able to pick out cancer cells from healthy ones, before the cancer cells grow and form a tumour, would be a major breakthrough in future medical diagnosis.

Lead researcher on the project is lung cancer specialist, Dr Josep Sulé-Suso of Keele University’s Research Institute for Science and Technology.

Principal Beamline Scientist on B22, Dr Gianfelice Cinque, is delighted to have reached this milestone of welcoming the first user on his newly completed beamline, and delivering a successful experiment. He says, “I am very pleased that all the efforts spent so far have allowed such a great first achievement, and I want to thank my team and the people at Diamond who helped to construct the IR beamline. Now that we have B22 starting its operation, and showing its capabilities in such frontier medical application, we will spend the next months optimising the IR microscope to achieve full potential for IR imaging and spectroscopy at the micron scale (a micron is one thousandth of a millimetre). Once fully commissioned, scientists will be able to come to Diamond to use the versatile IR beamline to carry out research not only in medical and biological sciences but also in fields such as new/composite materials science, chemical-physics of surfaces, biomineralogy and high pressure studies, as well as archeology and heritage science. Finally, I also hope to extend the range of possible experiments to the interesting field of far-IR and terahertz (THz) radiation applications.”

B22 is part of the second phase of construction at Diamond which is due to be complete in 2012. The further six Phase II beamlines that are scheduled to be added over the next two years will bring the total of operational beamlines at Diamond to 22, covering a wide range of science; from biology and medicine, to the physical and chemical sciences, through to the environmental and engineering.

More information:
For more information on Diamond’s Infrared Microscopy beamline, you can visit www.diamond.ac.uk/B22

Provided by Diamond Light Source