Interesting Products
Qioptiq's products, as previously mentioned, fall under 4 main categories: Medical and Life Sciences, Industrial Manufacturing, Defence and Aerospace as well as Research and Development. This page will cover a few of the products that greatly interested me from one of these categories: the medical and life sciences.
Medical and Life Sciences: Endoscopy
Under Medical and Life Sciences are 2 further categories: Medical Technology as well as Biotech and Life Sciences. One interesting product under the medical technology industry besides X-ray imaging (which has been covered in the main page) is endoscopy. Endoscopes are devices that enable the doctor to look inside the body, such as in the Gastrointestinal Tract and the Respiratory Tract. There are 2 types of endoscopes, namely flexible endoscopes and rigid endoscopes, both of which are produced by Qioptiq. Flexible endoscopes make use of optical fibres, a flexible transparent fiber made of glass that transmits light from one end to another. An optical fiber has a cladding made of a material with a lower refractive index, such that light is kept within the fiber by total internal reflection. (Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoscopy, http://www.answers.com/topic/endoscopy-2)
However, a flexible endoscope has limits to its image quality (as one fibre could only deliver one pixel of an image) and continuous flexing would break the fibres over time. Thus, a rigid endoscope or a rod lens endoscope was invented. As the name suggests, this endoscope uses cylindrical rod lenses that can transmit the image over longer distances that utilise the maximum diameter possible. This means that numerous microlenses along the way are not required, as microlenses would need a lot of support (that would take up the bulk of the tube and obscure the lens area) and would be incredibly difficult and expensive to manufacture. (Refer to http://www.ebme.co.uk/arts/scopes/index.htm)
Medical and Life Sciences: DNA Analysis
One interesting product that Qioptiq produceds under Biomedical and Life Sciences are fluorescence detector in use for DNA sequencing and analysis. In the Chain Terminator method (also known as the Sanger method), a single-stranded DNA template, a DNA primer, a DNA polymerase, radioactively or fluorescently labeled nucleotides, and modified nucleotides that terminate DNA strand elongation are needed. The DNA sample is divided into four separate sequencing reactions, containing all four of the standard deoxynucleotides (dATP, dGTP, dCTP and dTTP) and DNA polymerase. To each reaction is added only the four
dideoxynucleotides (ddATP, ddGTP, ddCTP, or ddTTP) which are the chain-terminating nucleotides, each with different wave lengths of fluorescence and emission. These molecules lack a 3'-OH group required for the formation of a phosphodiester bond between two nucleotides. This terminates DNA strand extension and causes various DNA fragments of varying length to be formed.
The newly synthesized and labeled DNA fragments are heat denatured, and separated by size (with a resolution of just one nucleotide) by gel electrophoresis on a denaturing polyacrylamide-urea gel with each of the four reactions run in one of four individual lanes (lanes A, T, G, C); the DNA bands are then visualized by autoradiography or UV light, and the DNA sequence can be directly read off the X-ray film or gel image. In the image shown, X-ray film was exposed to the gel, and the dark bands correspond to DNA fragments of different lengths. A dark band in a lane indicates a DNA fragment that is the result of chain termination after incorporation of a dideoxynucleotide (ddATP, ddGTP, ddCTP, or ddTTP). The relative positions of the different bands among the four lanes are then used to read (from bottom to top) the DNA sequence. (adopted from http://www.dnasequencing.org/chain-method)
dideoxynucleotides (ddATP, ddGTP, ddCTP, or ddTTP) which are the chain-terminating nucleotides, each with different wave lengths of fluorescence and emission. These molecules lack a 3'-OH group required for the formation of a phosphodiester bond between two nucleotides. This terminates DNA strand extension and causes various DNA fragments of varying length to be formed.
The newly synthesized and labeled DNA fragments are heat denatured, and separated by size (with a resolution of just one nucleotide) by gel electrophoresis on a denaturing polyacrylamide-urea gel with each of the four reactions run in one of four individual lanes (lanes A, T, G, C); the DNA bands are then visualized by autoradiography or UV light, and the DNA sequence can be directly read off the X-ray film or gel image. In the image shown, X-ray film was exposed to the gel, and the dark bands correspond to DNA fragments of different lengths. A dark band in a lane indicates a DNA fragment that is the result of chain termination after incorporation of a dideoxynucleotide (ddATP, ddGTP, ddCTP, or ddTTP). The relative positions of the different bands among the four lanes are then used to read (from bottom to top) the DNA sequence. (adopted from http://www.dnasequencing.org/chain-method)
Qioptiq produces various lenses, mirrors, prisms and other optical equipment to enable fluorescence to enable fast image capture and efficient fluorescence detection, such as manufacturing sensors and equipment that convert analogue data into digital data, strong light sources as well as dichroic mirrors and optical blocking filters to keep excitation light away from the detector. (refer to www.qioptiq.com/download/Qioptiq_Medical_Life-Sciences_Jan2011.pdf)