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Monday, 2 November 2015

The world's smallest microscope – breakthrough technology winning recognition around the world – is a Finalist in The Australian Innovation Challenge.

The microscope-in-a-needle, which will be used to help doctors perform safer breast surgery and brain surgery, was developed by a team from the University of Western Australia’s Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, in collaboration with clinicians from Royal Perth Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and with support from Cancer Council WA, the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Raine Medical Research Foundation.

“It takes an incredible team of engineers working closely with medical professionals to have enabled the technology to come this far. In bringing the learnings from the lab to the hospital setting, we get a lot of support from the surgeons because we’re listening to what they need. It’s all about making sure that what we’re developing is useful to the doctor,” said Robert McLaughlin, Associate Professor Biomedical Engineering.

The breakthrough technology has already won recognition around the world, and is perfecting microscopic resolution to aid surgical intervention - by putting a microscope inside a standard hypodermic needle to enable 3-D scanning.  In principal, it should allow surgeons to locate very small tumour elements, avoiding the need for further surgery and improving the prognosis of the patient.

Vote for Microscope-in-a-needle in the people's choice category at https://ow.ly/TSO2k

Media references

Mary Schultz (Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics) (+61 8) 6488 1868

Robert McLaughlin (Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics ) (+61 8) 6488 3105

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