HKU advances new technology ATOM for spotting rare cancer cells and early cancer detection

In a multi-disciplinary research project led by the Faculty of Engineering, HKU has successfully developed a new optical microcopy approach which integrates existing fiber-optic and laser technologies, called Asymmetric-detection Time-stretch Optical Microscopy (ATOM) that can capture images of moving cells up to 10,000 times faster than existing camera technologies. This achieves unusually fast, more accurate and more efficient optical imaging of biological cells and will certainly benefit rare cancer cells detection and other high-throughput clinical diagnostics.