Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Immune Cells Light Up from Tiny Lasers

By University of St Andrews | November 20, 2018

A team of researchers from the School of Physics at the University of St Andrews has developed tiny lasers that could revolutionize our understanding and treatment of many diseases, including cancer.

The research, published in Nature Communications, involved developing miniscule lasers, with a diameter of less than a thousandth of a millimeter, and inserting them in to live cells, e.g. immune cells or neurons. Once inside the cell, the lasers function as a beacon and can report on the location of cells, or potentially even send information about local conditions within a cell.

Currently, biologists typically use fluorescent dyes or fluorescent proteins to track the location of cells. Replacing these with tiny lasers gives scientists the ability to follow a much greater number of cells without losing track of which cell is which. This is because the light generated by each laser contains only a single wavelength.

By contrast, dyes generate light of multiple wavelengths in parallel which means one cannot accurately distinguish the light from more than four or five different dyes — the color of the dyes simply becomes too much alike.

Instead, the researchers have now shown that it is possible to produce thousands of lasers that each generate light of a slightly different wavelength and to tell these apart with great certainty.

The new lasers, in the form of tiny disks, are much smaller than the nucleus of most cells. They are made of a semiconductor quantum well material to provide the brightest possible laser emission and to ensure the color of the laser light is compatible with the requirements for cells.

While lasers have been placed inside cells before, earlier demonstrations have occupied over one thousand times larger volume inside the cells and required more energy to operate, which has limited their application, especially for tasks like following immune cells on their path to local sides of inflammation or monitoring the spread of cancer cells through tissue.

Lead academic Professor Malte Gather, from the School of Physics and Astronomy, says: “While it is exciting to think of cyborg immune cells that fight off bacteria with an ‘on-board laser cannon’, the real value of the latest research is more likely in enabling new ways of observing cells and thus better understanding the mechanisms of disease.”

Dr. Andrea Di Falco, from the School of Physics and Astronomy, who co-supervised the project, adds: “Our work is enabled by sophisticated nanotechnology. A new nanofabrication facility here in St Andrews allows us to produce lasers that are among the smallest known to date. These internalized sensors, akin to RFID microchips, permit to follow the cells as they feed, interact with their neighbors and move through narrow obstacles, without conditioning their behavior.”

PhD student Alasdair Fikouras and Royal Society Fellow Dr. Marcel Schubert, who jointly tested the new lasers are very excited about the prospects of the new laser platform.

“The new lasers can help us study so many urgent questions in completely different ways than before. We can now follow individual cancer cells to understand when and how they become invasive. It’s biology on the single cell level that makes it so powerful.”

Source: University of St Andrews

Related Articles Read More >

Illustration of ultracold atoms (gold) flowing frictionlessly along a laser boundary (green), representing the quantum phenomenon of edge states.
MIT physicists directly observe frictionless ‘edge state’ flow in ultracold atoms, offering a glimpse of super-efficient electronics
NTT Research scientist in cleanroom suit working on advanced photonic equipment
NTT Research bets light-based computing can tackles AI’s energy crisis
Scientists claim to generate world’s strongest terahertz radiation
SLAC fires up the world’s most powerful X-ray laser: LCLS-II ushers in a new era of science
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE