Jul 14 2009
Michelson Diagnostics Limited (MDL), the UK manufacturer of Multi-Beam Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scanners, is pleased to announce delivery of a unit to its first US customer. The EX1301 OCT Microscope is being used by the Center for Pharmacogenomics, Washington University in St. Louis, for cardiology research studying the dynamics of fruit fly hearts.
C-scan through fruit fly larva
The fruit fly, (Drosophila), is very widely used in genomics research, and the OCT Microscope is capable of performing a ‘whole body scan’ of the live insect, at a resolution of better than 10 µm, and at frame-rates of over 35 fps. This enables scientists such as Gerald Dorn (Needleman Professor and Director of the Center for Pharmacogenomics at Washington University in St Louis) to capture video sequences of the beating fruit fly heart, and extract precision measurements of the cardiac contraction and relaxation.
“The power of Drosophila genetics in combination with this turn-key platform for physiological analysis is tremendous, and I expect integration of novel physiological read-outs with gene manipulation in flies to rapidly impact molecular cardiovascular research and other areas such as developmental biology”, said Professor Dorn. “We were excited to get working heart images of our fruit flies on the day our OCT Microscope was installed”, he added.
The Dorn Lab studies many factors relating to how the heart adapts to increased stress, and how these adaptive mechanisms ultimately fail. The multidisciplinary and highly interactive environment provides an excellent foundation in molecular biology, cardiac physiology and mechanics, biochemistry and pharmacology, and for those interested in translational studies, genetic epidemiology and applied genomics.
With this sale, Michelson Diagnostics has established its first foot-hold in the US. Recently, it opened a US sales and support office. A demonstration OCT unit is based in the US for customer trials and demonstrations. The company is currently proceeding with plans to obtain a 510(k) for its VivoSight OCT scanner, to enable its sale for clinical applications in the US.
“The US market is unquestionably key to our commercial strategy”, said Michelson’s CEO Jon Holmes. “US customers are well known to rapidly take advantage of the latest and most innovative products”.
For further details about OCT and Michelson Diagnostics, please visit the MDL web site, www.michelsondiagnostics.com. Alternatively, you may email your questions to [email protected].