Synchrotron IR microspectroscopy of malignant tissue

The existing far infrared spectroscopy beam line at the Daresbury Laboratory Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) has been adapted to provide intense collimated radiation for a mid infrared microscope. The SRS beam is focused by the microscope onto an area of the sample only 20 X 30 microns in size and this allows the collection of high fidelity data from samples smaller than 10 microns across. At these dimensions, signal-to-noise is significantly greater than with a conventional infrared source. This new facility is now finding applications with a wide range of users in areas such as materials science, conservation, and biomedicine. As part of a collaboration between Daresbury Laboratory, Nottingham University and University Hospital, Nottingham, the instrument is being applied to investigate the subtle chemical differences which occur between normal and cancerous cells on a cell-by-cell basis. Significant spectral shifts, some of which have previously only been observed in macroscopic samples, can be identified in single cells. The enhanced ability to make such measurements by using synchrotron radiation as the IR source has potential to provide a clearer understanding of the changes occurring in cancerous and pre-cancerous cells.