Multiphoton beast is unleashed

Sydney's Centenary Institute has unveiled a new multiphoton microscope that enables researchers to see cells interacting in real time, in vivo.

The microscope, nicknamed "the beast" by the Centenary's executive director, Professor Mathew Vadas, uses infrared laser light, allowing users to see into intact tissues up to half a millimeter deep.

"You can see things of unprecedented clarity going on in the body and this gives us a fantastic insight into disease processes and in particular into cancer," Vadas said.

One use for the microscope will be the study of immune responses to cancer, a project led by the renowned researcher Professor Wolfgang Weninger, who joined the Centenary Institute in June. He also has a co-appointment at the University of Sydney's Department of Dermatology.

Using GFP-reporter transgenic mice, Weninger has been able to record in real time images of T cells invading and destroying cancer cells in living tissue.

"This is a mouse where we have a very strong anti-tumour response," Weninger said.

"The tumour cells are attacked by multiple T cells and we see that in real time now. These T cells very intimately interact with tumour cells.

"We can also see how tumour cells die. We can see a T cell attach and how over time the tumour cell disintegrates - it loses its morphology and in the end it will be dead.

"I believe we are the first ones to ever show how a tumour cell dies in vivo inside an intact tumour."

Weninger said the main aim of this project was to find out how T cells navigate through tumours and how they interact with the tumour cells.

The microscope, developed by German company LaVision BioTec, uses multiple laser beams in its imaging mode to allow viewing of fast moving objects and dynamic processes in living tissue.

It also comes with an optical parametric oscillator (OPO), which produces longer wavelengths of light, allowing users to see deeper into living tissue.