The new Raman system is designed to detect very faint signals from special surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles that bind to tumor markers. After the particles are applied to a sample or the area being examined, the imaging system reads their signal and automatically highlights spots that are likely to contain tumor tissue.

“Traditional methods for cancer-related diagnosis are time-consuming and labor-intensive because they require staining tissue samples and having a pathologist look for any abnormalities,” said research team leader Zhen Qiu from the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering (IQ), Michigan State University.

“While our system would not immediately replace pathology, it could serve as a rapid screening tool to accelerate diagnosis.”