{"id":57237,"date":"2026-06-12T11:08:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/?p=57237"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:56:10","slug":"bye-bye-biopsies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/impact\/how-it-works\/bye-bye-biopsies\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye-Bye Biopsies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Current medical imaging often fails to see clearly through thick tissue or capture fast-moving targets like blood cells in real time. To make a diagnosis, doctors resort to removing tissues, cutting them into thin slices, and dyeing them for analysis through a microscope. It can take days to get the lab results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Biomedical engineer Nicholas Durr<\/a> and surgical resident Gregory N. McKay, Med \u201924 (MD\/PhD), have developed a new microscopy method to change that. Called back-illumination tomography (BIT) and detailed in the journal Optica<\/a><\/em>, the technique produces real-time, high-resolution images of living tissue and flowing blood cells\u2014opening a potential path toward faster diagnoses and fewer invasive biopsies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Here’s how it works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. It uses tissue scattering rather than avoiding it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thick tissues scatter light, creating a murky \u201cfog\u201d that hides details. A standard biopsy removes tissue from the body so that it can be sliced into thin, transparent slices. The BIT system takes advantage of tissue-scattering. It projects a virtual light source deep into a tissue. Tissue-scattering creates a virtual semicoherent source that back-illuminates the more superficial structures. This light interferes with a reference wave, revealing structures that were previously hard to image. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. It doesn\u2019t need chemical stains. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most cells are transparent and require chemical dyes to be viewed under a microscope. The BIT system skips the dyes by harnessing how light scatters and creates distinctive interference patterns when it hits cellular components like a nucleus or a membrane. By capturing these patterns, BIT generates sharp, 3D images of unstained tissue that reveal the same structural details as traditional biopsies but without chemical processing or tissue removal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. It tracks highspeed motion. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BIT system captures moving targets far more effectively than traditional imaging. While standard microscopes are often too slow to track rapid movement, the BIT system captures full frames at high speed, making it possible to visualize fast biological processes\u2014such as individual blood cells racing through a vessel\u2014in real time without the motion blur common in other techniques. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. It eliminates wait times. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With further refinements, the technology could transform disease diagnosis. By using AI to virtually \u201cstain\u201d the images, results that currently take days to process in a lab could be delivered instantly. The team is now combining views from different angles for more accurate 3D images, with the goal of replacing lengthy surgical biopsies with bedside diagnosis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 CATHERINE GRAHAM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineers have developed a microscopy method for faster diagnoses and fewer invasive biopsies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":57747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"issue":[105],"class_list":["post-57237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-it-works","issue-spring-2026"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBye-Bye Biopsies - Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/impact\/how-it-works\/bye-bye-biopsies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bye-Bye Biopsies - Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Engineers have developed a microscopy method for faster diagnoses and fewer invasive biopsies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/impact\/how-it-works\/bye-bye-biopsies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-12T15:08:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-12T15:56:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/iStock-463742081-copy-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1699\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deboreah Ross\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/impact\\\/how-it-works\\\/bye-bye-biopsies\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/impact\\\/how-it-works\\\/bye-bye-biopsies\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Deboreah Ross\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e5619ae16d2b72b2cac7fcbd75b69356\"},\"headline\":\"Bye-Bye Biopsies\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-12T15:08:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-12T15:56:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/impact\\\/how-it-works\\\/bye-bye-biopsies\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":515,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/impact\\\/how-it-works\\\/bye-bye-biopsies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/iStock-463742081-copy-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"How It Works\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/impact\\\/how-it-works\\\/bye-bye-biopsies\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/impact\\\/how-it-works\\\/bye-bye-biopsies\\\/\",\"name\":\"Bye-Bye Biopsies - 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