Lasers are proven to be useful in the field of medicine for treatment of different ailments. Recently, an innovation on laser technology has been developed to provide insights to easily detect and fight diseases like cancer.
Dr. Ali Sami Alnaser, Associate Professor in Physics at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), developed a new laser-based technique that will allow experts to manipulate human cells on a much smaller and more precise scale.This advancementmay change the way we identify and treat cancer and other diseases.
Dr. Alnaser teamed up with scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. They molded extremely short laser pulses to select which bond to break inside a certain molecule, and manipulated the outcomes of its interaction with the laser. They were able to capture and direct the trajectories of the electrons and atoms as they interact with the external laser radiation.
Using advanced powerful lasers in medicine can provide deeper insights on the origin of a disease at their fundamental state and can help analyze the most effective way of curing them. Existence of these laser types will certainly bring new advancements in sciences and engineering, and it will lead to new applications in medicine and industry, in addition to its service to the environment research.
Dr. Alnaser’s work is the first unique scientific research from the UAE to be published in a prestigious multidisciplinary scientific journal Nature Communications and has been cited by other prestigious international news channels including USA News, Science Daily, and Phys. Org and Innovation Reports.
Dr. Alnaser was identified as a Distinguished Arab Scholar by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development in Kuwait in 2011 and was awarded an AED 200,000 grant that allowed him to travel to Germany to pursue his research. He plans to continue researching more complex targets that are essential to medicine industry so that in the future, lasers will soon be within reach in the UAE.
What Can Lasers Do?
Laser technology is proving to be an extraordinary tool for medical professionals as they are used in different surgical and non-surgical treatment of ailments such as:
- Brain Surgery – A free electron laser can be used to minimize damage to the brain during surgery.
- LASIK Eye Surgery – LASIK eye surgery treats short and long sightedness by changing the shape of the cornea.
- Skin – Lasers are used in dermatology for skin tone correction, scar removal, treatment of port-wine stains and other blood vessel disorders.
- Mammography – Lasers are now used as alternative for X-rays to to diagnose life-threatening diseases like breast cancer.
To knowmore about what lasers can do in medicine, an infographic is available at AUS website.
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