A combined micro fluidic single cell SRIR microscopy stage for use at Diamond

对于许多形式的癌症，只有取出一小部分组织样本、活组织检查，并由训练有素的病理学家在显微镜下对样本进行分析，才能做出正式诊断。就手术室时间、外科医生时间和病理学家时间而言，这是昂贵的。这也是一种侵入性手术，可能会给患者带来严重的不适。在获得结果方面也可能有延迟，而且总是有有限的机会(I)样本不确定或(Ii)病理学家不同意结果，因为这是一个主观分析，从而导致第二次活组织检查，或在极少数情况下，误诊。延迟收到检测结果是给患者带来压力的主要原因，政府癌症行动计划的关键目标之一是通过引入新技术和更快速的诊断方法来缩短等待时间。已经证明，一些癌症可以通过对几个细胞的分析来诊断。一种名为红外光谱的技术可以测量不同类型细胞的生化特征，这些生物化学特征可以像细胞指纹一样使用。例如，癌变的前列腺癌细胞与健康的前列腺癌细胞的信号略有不同。因此，可以根据细胞的红外光谱进行诊断，而不需要活检，而且分析完全是以非主观的方式进行的。这应该会导致诊断准确性的显著提高。然而，红外线方法不是一种高通量技术，因此必须开发增加在给定时间内分析的细胞数量的方法。使用最先进的微流体技术，我们建议建立一个高通量系统，将悬浮在液体中的细胞自动输送到红外显微镜的焦点。重要的是，显微镜将连接到新的钻石光源，它可以提供1000倍于传统光源的红外光。利用这种超强红外显微镜，我们可以开发出新型的高通量癌症诊断系统。

For many forms of cancer a formal diagnosis can only be made by removing a small sample of tissue, a biopsy, and having this sample analysed under a microscopy by trained pathologists. This is expensive in terms of operating theatre time surgeon time and pathologist time. It is also an invasive procedure that can result in significant discomfort to the patient. There can also be delays in getting results and there is always a finite chance that (i) the sample is inconclusive or (ii) the pathologists disagree about the result since it is a subjective analysis, thus resulting in taking a second biopsy or in rare cases, misdiagnosis. Delays in receiving test results are a major cause of stress to patients and one to the key aims of the government's Cancer Action Plan is to reduce these waiting times with the introduction of new technology and more rapid methods of diagnosis. It has been demonstrated that some cancers can be diagnosed from analysis of just a few cells. A technique known as infrared spectroscopy can measure a biochemical signature from individual types of cells and these biochemical signatures can be used like a cellular fingerprint. For example cancerous prostate cells have a slightly different signature from healthy prostate cells. It is possible therefore to make a diagnosis based on the infrared spectrum of cells without the need for a biopsy and furthermore the analysis is done in a completely non-subjective way. This should lead to a significant improvement in diagnostic accuracy. However the infrared method is not a high throughput technique so methods have to be developed that increase the number of cells analysed in a given time. Using state of the art microfluidics technology we propose to build a high throughput system that will automatically deliver cells, suspended in liquid, to the focal point of an infrared microscope. Importantly the microscope will be connected to the New Diamond Light Source that can deliver infrared light 1000 times as bright as a conventional source. Using this ultra powerful infrared microscope we can develop the novel high throughput cancer diagnostic system.