<div align="justify">Australian engineers have developed an advanced microscope using barcode laser scanner technology that may help doctors better analyse complex medical conditions ranging from blood disorders and cancer to neurological disorders.<br /><br />The microscope can film moving blood cells and neurons firing in living animals and is much more powerful than similar microscopes available commercially.<br /><br />"Scientists can use our new microscope to analyse complex medical problems ranging from blood disorders and cancer to neurological disorders," said lead researcher, Steve Lee from Australian National University (ANU).<br /><br />"The microscope can speed up or slow down to capture the slow moving cells in a blood stream or live neurons firing rapidly in the brain, making it much more flexible than other microscopes on the market," said Lee.<br /><br />Lee said the microscope used technology similar to retail barcode scanners and office laser printers.<br /><br />In barcode scanners, a laser beam bounces off a spinning polygon mirror, allowing it to scan across a sample very quickly.<br /><br />A barcode scanner registers a sequence of patterns to identify a product. A polygon mirror usually has around 10 mirror facets.<br /><br />Lee said the team's microscope used a more powerful laser beam as the light source and up to 36 mirror facets to scan the laser beam across the biological sample in a few thousandths of a second.<br /><br />"We achieve the same imaging resolution of conventional scanning microscopes on the market but at double the speed," he said.<br /><br />"The innovation here is that we modernised the polygon mirror microscopy system with advanced electronics and software controls to enable real-time imaging applications, with up to 800 frames per second," Lee added.<br /><br />Yongxiao Li, a PhD student from the ANU Research School of Engineering, said the customised open-source software made the microscope a flexible imaging tool.<br /><br />The research was published in the Journal of Biophotonics.</div>
<div align="justify">Australian engineers have developed an advanced microscope using barcode laser scanner technology that may help doctors better analyse complex medical conditions ranging from blood disorders and cancer to neurological disorders.<br /><br />The microscope can film moving blood cells and neurons firing in living animals and is much more powerful than similar microscopes available commercially.<br /><br />"Scientists can use our new microscope to analyse complex medical problems ranging from blood disorders and cancer to neurological disorders," said lead researcher, Steve Lee from Australian National University (ANU).<br /><br />"The microscope can speed up or slow down to capture the slow moving cells in a blood stream or live neurons firing rapidly in the brain, making it much more flexible than other microscopes on the market," said Lee.<br /><br />Lee said the microscope used technology similar to retail barcode scanners and office laser printers.<br /><br />In barcode scanners, a laser beam bounces off a spinning polygon mirror, allowing it to scan across a sample very quickly.<br /><br />A barcode scanner registers a sequence of patterns to identify a product. A polygon mirror usually has around 10 mirror facets.<br /><br />Lee said the team's microscope used a more powerful laser beam as the light source and up to 36 mirror facets to scan the laser beam across the biological sample in a few thousandths of a second.<br /><br />"We achieve the same imaging resolution of conventional scanning microscopes on the market but at double the speed," he said.<br /><br />"The innovation here is that we modernised the polygon mirror microscopy system with advanced electronics and software controls to enable real-time imaging applications, with up to 800 frames per second," Lee added.<br /><br />Yongxiao Li, a PhD student from the ANU Research School of Engineering, said the customised open-source software made the microscope a flexible imaging tool.<br /><br />The research was published in the Journal of Biophotonics.</div>