SOCIETY
UT develops new method for filming the release of medicine inside cells
Baku, May 26 (AZERTAC). Researchers at the University of Twente have developed a method to allow them to watch close-up how medicines are released in cells and to monitor their absorption at the level of individual cells.
This method of administering medicine has considerable potential, but more research is still required. One limiting factor has been that - until now - it was not possible to see how medicines were being absorbed, simply because the whole process happened too quickly and the bubbles were too small to see using normal microscopes. This is why researchers of the University of Twente’s Physics of Fluids research group, together with researchers from the Erasmus MC, set out to develop a new method for viewing the absorption of medicines at the cellular level. The method, which has been dubbed ‘ultra-high-speed fluorescence microscopy’, makes use of the Brandaris 128 camera - which was also developed at Twente. The camera can film at a speed of at least 25 million images per second, making it the fastest camera in the world. Various other clever adaptations have made this not only the fastest camera in the world, but also one of the most sensitive of its kind.