Manchester startup develops 'game changing' microscope

A Manchester based startup has quadrupled the magnification power of the optical microscope by using nanotechnology.

The Nanopsis microscope, developed by LIG Nanowise, allows users to view the structures of viruses for the first time, without having to use highly expensive technology such as electron microscopes or X-Ray imaging systems.

The Nanopsis microscope combines a traditional lens with tiny transparent beads called microspheres to enhance sub-wavelength light which is normally invisible to regular microscopes. Nanowise state that the Nanopsis microscope could do the same job as other highly expensive equipment, but at a fraction of the cost. The company also regards the microscope as a potential ‘game changer’ in areas such a drug discovery, cancer research and microelectronics.

Project leader and commercial director Alex Sheppard said: "We have invented a super lens technology which increases the magnification of a regular optical microscope by four times. This allows you to see structures which are 90 nanometres (billionths of a metre) where a regular optical microscope is limited to seeing 200 nanometre structures by limitations in physics.

"This is the most powerful objective lens in the world. What this means is that you can see structures like a virus (75 - 150 nanometres) which you can't detect with a standard optical microscope and any current objective lenses on the market."

Professor Lin Li, chairman of LIG Nanowise, said: "Researchers can use our microscopes to validate samples and carry out routine work in their own laboratory without having to waste valuable time booking into an imaging centre.

"Our aim is to make super-resolution imaging more accessible to researchers across the globe."