Fibre-optic probe offers insights into overheating brains

The fibre-optic probe could help researchers find better treatments to prevent drug-induced overheating of the brain, and potentially refine thermal treatment for cancers.

“With an outer diameter of only 130 microns, the probe is as thin as a single strand of human hair,” said Dr Jiawen Li, a researcher with the Adelaide Medical School, ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics (CNBP) and the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) at the University of Adelaide.

“This means it can be delivered deep inside the body in a minimally invasive way. It also allows us to see and record physiological data in real time that we weren’t able to access before.”

The miniaturised imaging and sensing probe has been developed to help study drug-induced hyperthermia.

“Using some drugs such as ecstasy can make certain brain regions overheat and then become damaged,” Dr Li said.

“Using the probe’s imaging function during experiments, our medical collaborators would be able to see deep inside the brain of a living organism and guide the placement of the probe to the right brain region.”