Spectrometers > Applications > Biomedical Applications of High Performance Spectrometers
Both the high performance spectrometers and multichannel spectrometers produced by P&P Optica can be used in variety of biomedical applications. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of P&P Optica spectrometers is that they are non-scanning. All points of the obtained spectrum are collected at the same time during an exposure. This means that any biological changes such as blood flow variations due to temperature changes or due to the pulse, influence the entire spectrum. Other events, such as protein transport across cell membranes, changes in mixtures, etc. all need spectra which are obtained simultaneously with a non-scanning system.
Scanning systems, such as the Czerny-Turner based spectrometers, obtain spectral information over a period of time, so that features collected at the beginning of the scan can correspond to very different conditions than those existing at the end of the scan. This introduces severe limitations on Czerny-Turner spectrometers which can be easily overcome with non-scanning systems like those produced by P&P Optica.
Ability to measure very small spectral changes from sample to sample is particularly important in applications which measure small concentration changes of the substance of interest, or which try to correlate spectral features to more abstract biomedical information,eg. risk of cancer. Uses of the P&P Optica spectrometer for breast cancer risk prediction can be found in a white paper written in collaboration with Dr. Lothar Lilge at the Ontario Cancer Institute.
Measurement of spectra collected at several points simultaneously also has advantages in many areas of biomedical spectroscopy. For example, it is possible to measure several points in a mixing tank to ensure appropriate mixing of reagents. Monitoring biological systems at many points or from many directions at the same time can also provide information about spread of disease, presence of analytes, or spread of signals through tissue.
