URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — With the help of a $33 million contract, U of I engineers with the Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory have created technology to help doctors look at cells in new ways without a microscope.

The Margin Diagnostics (MarginDx) project combined imaging technology and other tools to assist doctors during surgeries and ensure all tumor cells are removed. The system collects an “optical biopsy,” similar to an ultrasound, but uses light instead.

Steven Boppart, an engineering professor and Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute director, hopes this decreases re-operation rates after cancer surgeries.

For example, he said studies have shown 20-30% of breast cancer patients have needed to have another surgery if surgeons don’t remove all the tumorous cells.

“For patients, this can be an incredible savings,” he said. “They don’t necessarily have to come back for re-operation, so there’s less anxiety and less cost associated with that, and ultimately better outcomes that the cancer won’t reoccur.”

Boppart and his team have worked with Carle Health for the last 20-25 years to develop the imaging system. It isn’t for commercial use yet, but he said they’re looking to expand and are starting to collaborate with the Mayo Clinic. He hopes surgeons can use it on patients within the next five years.

The technology can be applied to many body parts and pick up information for different internal or external diseases. For instance, the lab is focusing on how this can also be used for pediatric care.

Besides tumors, it can detect signs and symptoms of various infections, especially in the ear.

Guillermo Monroy, a post-doctoral researcher, said it helps doctors make the best diagnosis possible.

“If we can make sure that antibiotics are prescribed appropriately, so care is distributed accurately and then patients are either referred to surgery or at home as quickly as possible, that’s really what we’re after,” he explained.

This specific technology is already being implemented at OSF primary care clinics across Central Illinois.

For more information about the project, click this link and head to the institute’s website.