Conducting Real-Time Research via the Internet

Researchers have shown the ability to collaborate with scientists around the world using new Internet-based technology, without having to go to a single laboratory site, which may lead to the ability to use the Internet to deliver selective medical procedures.

In a proof-of-principle series of experiments, scientists from the University of California, Irvine (USA), and the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia) employed a new Internet-based laser scissors-and-tweezers technology called RoboLase to produce surgical holes in a distinct pattern of less than one micron in diameter (1/1000th of a millimeter) in single cells. Using a control panel projected onto a computer screen, the researchers in Australia were able to remotely perform the cell surgery on a laser microscope system in the southern California laboratory.

The scientists were also able to "optically trap” swimming sperm in the California lab by operating optical-laser tweezers remotely from Australia. This feat demonstrated the amount of computer bandwidth (1 gigabyte/second) needed by the two groups to observe and grab a fast-moving sperm with virtually no detectable delay in image transmission between the two laboratories.

"The speed and precision of the sub-cellular surgery was equal to what it would be like if we are doing the same surgery in our labs here in California,” said Michael Berns, professor of biomedical engineering at UCI, who led the development of the RoboLase technology.

The experiments show that scientists can now collaborate with other scientists around the world on research projects by using this new instrumentation, without having to travel to a single laboratory site. The results of the experiments were reported in the September 2005 issue of Microscopy Research and Technique.





Related Links:
University of California, Irvine