Top content published this week include a panel discussion with five SpecAcademy instructors and a feature article on Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.
|Articles|October 5, 2009
MS-Based Device May Help Surgeons Identify Cancerous Tissue Faster
A device based on mass spectrometry could help surgeons identify cancerous tissue during surgical procedures, according to a study published in Angewandte Chemie German Chemical Society.
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A device based on mass spectrometry could help surgeons identify cancerous tissue during surgical procedures, according to a study published in Angewandte Chemie (German Chemical Society.)
The technique, developed by a team of Hungarian and German scientists, could help surgeons know when a tumor has been completely removed in under a second.
Currently, while a patient is under anesthesia, surgeons will remove a tumor and then send pieces of healthy surrounding tissue for histological analysis to determine if all the cancer was removed, repeating the process during the same surgical session if the results are found to be positive.
Dr. Zoltan Takats, PhD, a chemist at the Justus Liebeg University in Giessen, Germany, and his team have developed a device that utilizes rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry (REIMS). It will analyze ions given off by tumors as they are burned off during surgery. They are then analyzed by a program that runs them against a tumor database, and rather than having the results in the traditional 30 to 40 minutes, a surgeon can reportedly have them in under one second.
For more information, and to see the original research,
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In this Q&A, we provide an overview of what the latest “What’s Nu” covered, which includes new research in environmental analysis and clinical analysis.
How has spectroscopy training changed? A recent panel discussion explored this topic, discussing how SpecAcademy can widen access without losing the value of hands-on instruction.
How has spectroscopy education evolved over the years?
FT-IR spectroscopy, long treated as a mature bench technique for confirming a carbonyl stretch or fingerprinting a polymer, has quietly become one of chemistry’s most versatile discovery engines: it now infers molecular structure straight from a spectrum without a reference library, resolves chemistry tens of nanometers wide, and screens a fingerstick of blood for disease in minutes. The last five years of published research show FT-IR moving from a confirmatory tool into a predictive, autonomous, and field-ready analytical platform.
In this panel discussion, five SpecAcademy instructors examined why spectroscopy expertise has declined and how SpecAcademy aims to rebuild it through curated, fundamentals-based education suited to increasingly complex analytical work.
A recent roundtable discussion with the SpecAcademy instructors explored why spectroscopy expertise has eroded and how SpecAcademy aims to rebuild it.
The agreement gives North American customers a stocked, domestic source for InGaAs PIN photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes from the Scottish manufacturer.
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