The first and only Biobrillouin microscope in Ireland installed on Trinity College Dublin

Trinity College Dublin now has the first and only biobrillouin microscope in Ireland, which will allow researchers to perform gigantic progress in the field of inflammation, cancer, development biology and biomedical materials.

Cell and tissue mechanics are strong regulators of the disease, dysfunction and regeneration, and their understanding is therefore the main goal of biomedical researchers. But existing methods are invasive and limited in terms of information that they can provide.

However, the amazing new Brillouin microscope can map and quantitatively determine the compression, viscousness and detailed mechanics of biological materials and tissues, using non -invasive light. This enables scientists to assess the mechanical properties of live systems (such as cells and tissues) without disturbing them, enabling them to monitor the system and how to change it over time. It is based on the scattering of light from the result of the interaction between the photon of light and the acoustic phonons of the material, which is affected by the mechanical properties of the material.

With the support of the European Research Council (ERC) and Ireland research, the Brillouin microscopy system was installed in the laboratory of prof. Michael Monaghan in the School of Engineering in Trinity, where he is in the Trinity Center for Biomedical Sciences Institute.

“Being the first commercial system in the world, we have huge technical support from the supplier, Cellsense Technologies GmbH, with whom we worked closely to get a system on Earth. Our success is their success,” said prof. Monaghan, who is a collaborator of an expert consensus article published today in the leading international journal Nature Photonics.

This statement accumulates the knowledge of international experts in the use of Brillouin microscopy in biomedical applications.

Examination of the mechanical properties of live systems is extremely important in countless areas and promises to enable jumping forward in our understanding of the ways in which inflammation And for example, cancer develops.

It is also important, however, to understand that its use is not limited to biomedical research and related applications – it will help scientists exceed the boundaries even more in areas such as material science, ICT, energy storage, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical devices and diagnostics. This breakthrough equipment will help us develop the science of the border and we expect that scientists will travel from around the world to use it – we have already welcomed a little. “

Prof. Michael Monaghan, School of Engineering at Trinity