Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

NIH uses new imaging to see neural tissues in the retina

November 14, 2018 By Danielle Kirsh

national-institutes-of-healthThe National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute is combining two imaging techniques to see live neurons, epithelial cells and blood vessels deep in the light-sensing retina of the eye.

The two imaging techniques, called adaptive optics and angiography, could help the NEI change how eye diseases are detected and how conditions like age-related macular degeneration can be treated.

“For studying diseases, there’s no substitute for watching live cells interact. However, conventional technologies are limited in their ability to show such detail,” Johnny Tam, the study’s lead author and an investigator in the clinical and translational imaging unit at NEI, said in a press release.

Postmortem and biopsied tissues are typically used to study disease at cellular levels. However, the tissues are not ideal for watching subtle changes that happen as a disease progresses over time. The technologies that are available today also hamper imaging of retinal tissues as light passes through the cornea, lens and gel-like vitreous in the center of the eye.

Tam and the other researchers decided to use adaptive optics to deal with the distortion problems. Adaptive optics improves the resolution of optical systems by using deformable mirrors and computer algorithms, according to the NIH. The method got its start in ophthalmology in the mid-1990s.

The researchers used a combination of adaptive optics and indocyanine green angiography. Indocyanine green angiography is an imaging technique that uses an injectable dye and cameras to show vessel structures and the movement of fluids in the structures. The researchers performed the study with 23 participants and found that the multimodal method allowed them to see a complex unit of cells and tissues that interact with the outermost part of the retina for the first time.

The researchers then tested the multimodal imaging technique in patients who had retinitis pigmentosa and found that there were well-preserved RPE and blood vessels in the parts of the retina where photoreceptors died.

“In the past, we have not been able to reliably asses the status of photoreceptors alongside RPE cells and choriocapillaris in the eye,” Tam said. “Revealing which tissue layers are affected in different stages of diseases – neurons, epithelial cells or blood vessels – is a critical first step for developing and evaluating targeted treatments for disease.”

The research was published in the journal Communications Biology and was funded by the Intramural Research Program at the NEI.

Related Articles Read More >

A portrait of AcuityMD co-founder and CEO Michael Monovoukas
Device commercialization platform AcuityMD raises $31M Series A to fund R&D engineer hiring
Harvard Science and Engineering Complex SEC SEAS Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Here’s where Harvard’s engineering dean sees medtech research going
An illustration of a cloud-shaped room filled with medical devices
The cloud is transforming medtech: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, J&J, Philips and GE Healthcare leaders explain
MIT GI pressure detection device
MIT researchers think their tube-based device could improve gastrointestinal disorder diagnosis

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 13, 2022
Our Pre-Post-DeviceTalks Boston episode, also MedtronicTalks replay with Gastro CMO Austin Chiang
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech