Olympus microscopes - helping doctors see the light in their quest to understand the mechanisms of cancer
Olympus was founded in 1919 with the goal of manufacturing a truly world-class microscope. And with the involvement, insight, and inspiration of our "Social IN" management philosophy, we've worked to fulfill that goal ever since. Today, our advanced microscope systems are used by physicians and researchers around the world, and are playing a vital role in the search for new ways to treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
The "Asahi", Olympus's first microscope
The present-day Olympus BX53 inspection
and research microscope
There are approximately 60 trillion cells in the average human body. Yet at the start, the magic of life begins with a single egg cell. After fertilization, this cell divides and multiplies, assuming the myriad forms needed to form our bodies?bones, muscles, nerves, internal organs, brains, and all.
Our bodies are equipped with mechanisms to get rid of cells that have died or been destroyed, and many types of cells are constantly renewed. But cells sometimes multiply out of control, even when they're not needed, leading to the disease we know as cancer.
Olympus microscopes enable doctors and laboratory technicians to observe cell and tissue microstructure deformation in minute detail, and have become essential optical tools in the field of medicine, particularly for the diagnosis of cancer.
Gastric cancer pathology specimen
Cervical cell diagnostic specimen
FluoView® FV1000D confocal laser scanning microscope system
To understand the mechanisms by which cancers grow, and to develop new drugs to treat them, cells must be studied at a molecular level?something that was very difficult to do with conventional microscopes of the past. Now, however, fluorescent dyes have been developed to mark specific proteins, and the advanced Olympus fluorescence microscopes used to observe them have become indispensable to leading-edge cancer research.
FluoView® FV10i self-contained confocal laser scanning microscope system
In a major advance over previous fluorescence imaging tools, Olympus confocal laser scanning microscope systems have achieved notable breakthroughs in clarity and sharpness by effectively reducing the out-of-focus fluorescence emissions that can prevent cell activity and molecular interactions from being clearly observed.
Olympus has also been working closely with the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research since 2005, when we jointly opened the Olympus Bio-Imaging Laboratory to pursue research into molecular imaging, particularly as it relates to the diagnosis of cancer and the development of anti-cancer drugs. Here, too, Olympus confocal laser scanning microscopes are at work, capturing motion video images that help scientists understand how anti-cancer agents act on cancer cells at a molecular level.
The Olympus Bio-Imaging Laboratory (right photo) at the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research (left photo)
Video of anti-cancer agent acting on colon cancer cells over a 4-hour period Video courtesy of Dr. Yuji Mishima M.D., Ph.D., and Dr. Kiyohiko Hatake, M.D., Ph.D. of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research Clinical Department.
Someday we will be able to know whether therapeutic antibody, like anti-EGFR antibody can kill cancer patient’s cancer cells.
Monoclonal antibody (orange-labeled), gene technology made, against EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor, which signals growth and proliferation in cancer cells) will be able to attack and kill the colon cancer cells by natural killer cells (NK cell, green-labeled cells) in vitro and ex vivo. In the human body, we think that monoclonal antibody can kill the cancer cells with NK cells. In near future, we will be able to know soon whether therapeutic antibody can kill the cancer cells before chemotherapy, just after surgical operation or endoscopic biopsy.
Kiyohiko Hatake
It is research efforts such as these that have given birth to many of the medicines and treatments we depend on today to maintain our health. At Olympus, we're proud to support this advanced research, and we pledge to continue to develop the microscopes and imaging technologies needed to create the new medicines and new treatments of tomorrow.
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