Novel imaging technique to enhance diagnosis

MedTech News: A novel way to pinpoint and illuminate bone damage promises to make imaging more efficient at diagnosing bone and other injuries, Flinders University researchers say.

The new technique, looking at potential biomedical applications of an ancient inorganic salt-based aggregation induced emission (AIE) radio-luminescence material, could open new frontiers in medicine including X-ray dosimetry, bioimaging and advanced applications such as optogenetics, says Professor Youhong Tang, from Flinders University’s College of Science and Engineering.

“We were able to use Micro-X advanced X-ray machines at the Tonsley Innovation District to show the benefits of this AIEgen system which can be excited by X-ray (as the radioluminescence emitter) and UV light (as the photoluminescence emitter) compared to current AIEgens which mostly only act as the photoluminescence emitter,” he says.

“The study highlighted the disadvantages of autofluorescence, poor signal-to-noise radio, and poor tissue penetration depth of traditional photoluminescence emitters which could be elegantly solved by these radioluminescence luminogens,” says Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Dr Tang.

“Not only do they pinpoint bone and soft tissue damage for better diagnosis and treatment but we suggest further studies could see these AIE-based materials with multifunctionalities used for improved drug delivery, biosensors, bioimaging, and tissue engineering.”

Lead author on the journal article, Dr Tavokoli, based at the Centre for Health Technologies at University of Technology Sydney, says the next generation of fluorescent gels could also capitalise on additional light-emitting properties making them attractive for different applications.

The latest work not only explores a series of inorganic AIE systems but also “fundamentally helps to understand both the unconventional organic and inorganic clusteroluminescence phenomena,” Professor Tang concluded.