Download Hyperspectral fluorescence Imaging: the potential of cryogenic

Hyperspectral fluorescence Imaging:
the potential of cryogenic detectors
David Ray
Chief Technology Officer
BioAstral Limited
What does BioAstral have to offer the stem cell
research community?
We have taken detector technology developed by
ESA for X-ray astronomy and deployed it down the
microscope to image fluorescence from bioassay
This capability is based on superconducting
tunnelling junction (STJ) devices
Initial results using specialised kit at ESTEC,
based on single pixel tantalum detectors, took us
by surprise
Photon detection across the visible spectrum from UV to IR
Two to three orders of magnitude improved sensitivity over
conventional PMT or CCD detectors
Essentially no background noise
We measure the energy of photons directly, without the
need to infer colour by use of filters
This adds up to the potential for sensitive and true
hyperspectral imaging across the optical spectrum and into
the infra red
This might have been a curiosity restricted to specialist
cryogenic labs
But for the quite independent development of commercially
available user-friendly cryogen-free coolers capable of
operating at extended periods at milliKelvin temperatures
Here we had the potential to take STJ detectors and operate
them in a biology lab
And this has been the focus of BioAstral efforts to date: to take
STJs and get them to operate routinely in the new coolers
Scanner Process
4
Data
analysis
3
1
Counts per channel per second
2
Data
acquisition
Light
capture
Excitation
9
8
7
Alexa 594
6
Alexa 488
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
1.5
2
Photon energy (eV)
STJ
Cooler
Instrument
control
Fluorescent
Biomedical
Sample
10
2.5
3
We still have some technical problems to resolve before
our STJs work as well in the Heliox cooler as they do in
ESA’s helium dilution refrigerators
But we have identified solutions to these problems and we
have the resources in place to implement these
Our next step will be to refine the benefits of HPD for live
cell research
The ability to look at two, three perhaps more colours
simultaneously without problems of photo-bleaching
The use of lower excitation energies
The use of fluors better suited to maintaining cell
viability
Possibly even the use of auto-fluorescence to
selectively characterise cell biomarkers
True multicolour photon imaging
Potentially transformative in terms of biology
and life sciences research
Enabling diagnostics for personalised
medicine
Disruptive of current markets