Faster, more sensitive imaging of live cells – Biotech’s future

Developing new drugs means researchers must observe how cells react to those drugs over extended periods of time. NSF-funded small business Phi Optics has developed an optical microscope that lets scientists do just that -- study living cells in their natural environments.

Current techniques kill the cells that are used. PhiOptics is able to look at the same live cells for long periods of time. This solves issues in fields like the pharmaceutical area where a scientist may want to look at a live cell for two weeks in order to see what a drug does to those cells. With PhiOptics technology, those scientists can perform these tests on the live cells in shorter time and receive more accurate and better information.

Catalin Chiritescu talked about how the technology works at the 2014 BIO International Convention.