Lights! Camera! Bacteria! Tiny probe scopes out Infections

This article is about a very small invention of Bill Costerton and David Dickensheets. It’s all about a microscope so tiny that according to the description given in this article, it can fit between one’s teeth and gums, or even pierce an eardrum. What’s so special about this invention aside from its side it that it can instantly send or give you pictures and images of the cells in which they are inserted or placed in. This project started in the fall of 2000 and will first be used to study biofilms. Biofilms can also be viewed under other types of microscopes like a binocular biological microscope. In the future, this instrument could be a less invasive way in the diagnosis and study of cancer and other diseases. Given a grant from the National Science Foundation, the developers of this microscope envisioned a microscope tiny enough to take pictures and images of cells without taking them out from the body. This procedure usually makes use of microscopes like a binocular biological microscope. This particular project of theirs focuses more on periodontal and ear problems. Since usually when one gets infections on these areas, biofilms are involved. Biofilms are slimy communities of bacteria that form inside the body and are usually resistant to antibiotics. To further study bacteria you can use a binocular biological microscope. Because of this, Costerton and his colleagues in Pittsburgh worked to find a way to treat ear infections better while a different team in Seattle was doing the same team with gum disease. You can also view gum tissues under a binocular biological microscope.

According to the article, this ultra- miniature confocal microscope is made up of lasers, fiber optics and a tiltable mirror. This can allow both parties to view organisms as small as 0.6 microns, bacterial cells are one micron across. By using this type of microscope, scientists can rotate the microscope 360 degrees and view cells where they are. There is no need to collect samples anymore and grow them in Petri dishes only to find out again that bacteria grow differently in their own environment.

Before coming to MSU from Stanford University, Dickensheets had already developed a micromachined confocal optical microscope which looked more like a pencil. According to Garth Ehrlich, executive director of the Center for Genomic Sciences at the Allegheny Singer Research Institute in Pittsburgh, this miniature microscope of Dickensheets would be very useful in the study of ear infections. This would be very time efficient since it meant that scientists could look directly at the infecting bacteria after sacrificing chinchillas and dissecting out the tympanic bullae. According to Costerton ,the microscope will first be tested using animals and then eventually, hopefully on humans. Most human cells and tissues can be viewed under a binocular biological microscope. Another instrument that Dickensheets is designing in his laboratory is a midget microscope that could be fitted inside an endoscope and send pictures automatically onto a TV screen. Another possible use for this probe which is being explored is using it on Mars as a remotely- operated microscope and spectrometer. The scientists involved in this project had nothing but praise for this ultra- miniature microscope, claiming it as both wonderful and heaven- sent.