RESEARCH NEWS
Cell colour technology wins Eureka Prize
Professor Ewa Goldys, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) at Macquarie University, together with CNBP research affiliate Dr Martin Gosnell have won the ANSTO ‘Innovative Use of Technology’ award at the 2016 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.
They were recognised for their innovative colour-focused research, which is able to distinguish between healthy and diseased cells, in areas as diverse as embryology, neurodegeneration, cancer and diabetes.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be awarded this prize out of such a high-quality field of researchers and scientists,” says Professor Goldys.
Living colour
“The hyperspectral imaging technique pioneered by our team lets us successfully extract specific biomolecular information hidden in fluorescent colour signatures of living cells and tissues.”
With this research, a new window into the body had been opened, she says.
“Through the approach we are taking, incorporating leading-edge microscopes, ‘big data’ and the high processing speeds of modern computers, we are able to noninvasively and rapidly detect major health conditions, across a wide variety of areas.”
The future of the research, Professor Goldys believes, is one of high-impact and significant possibility.
“These colour-based cellular and molecular measurements have the potential to be done in-vivo (in the body), expediting the potential for healthcare decisions based on the health needs of the individual and their unique biological characteristics.”
“The really exciting thing is that while we are probing the very limits of our understanding of life at the molecular level, this technology also yields real world translational outcomes – outcomes that will support clinicians in making improved diagnosis and health decisions for patients.”