Elec­tron microscopy (EM) plays a major role in diag­nos­ing dis­ease, but its increas­ing cost con­tributes to lim­it­ing its avail­abil­i­ty to a hand­ful of met­ro­pol­i­tan locations.

Our Liv­er­pool lab assessed oth­er EM plat­forms to see if they could be mod­i­fied to increase automa­tion and deliv­er improved cost effi­cien­cies. In an inno­v­a­tive col­lab­o­ra­tion with ATA Sci­en­tif­ic and Ther­mo Fish­er Sci­en­tif­ic Inter­na­tion­al, a low-cost bench­top elec­tron micro­scope used for engi­neer­ing and geol­o­gy was reimag­ined for use in pathol­o­gy. It will be used in our Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy lab­o­ra­to­ries and could have glob­al com­mer­cial potential.

This new class of EM can resolve sin­gle pro­teins, virus­es and key cel­lu­lar changes in renal dis­ease, can­cer and rare dis­eases, promis­ing health and eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits for patients and the NSW Health system.

This project demon­strates orig­i­nal­i­ty and inno­va­tion. It’s an exam­ple of clin­i­cal ser­vice deliv­ery con­tin­u­ing to trans­form via research and indus­try collaboration