http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090319104029.htm

Fast Camera Shows Even Small Variations In Blood Circulation

ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2009) — Burns or other disorders that disrupt the blood flow in tissues will soon be easier to assess thanks to a camera that is capable of imaging blood circulation in real time.

Compared to an earlier version, the new optical perfusion camera (TOPCam) from Twente, the Netherlands, is a significant improvement with regard to speed, so that even small variations in blood circulation are immediately visible. The camera is now ready for clinical application. Researchers of the Institute for Biomedical Technology (BMTI) of the University of Twente are publishing an article on the camera in the March number of Optics Express.

After earlier successful tests at the Martini Hospital in Groningen, the Netherlands, the researchers have made a number of significant improvements to the camera. The speed of the earlier version was commended by doctors and nurses, but real-time images of variations in the blood circulation were not yet possible. They are now, though, according to researcher Wiendelt Steenbergen: “We can now see rapid variations in blood circulation, too, for example when the circulation gets going again after occlusion of an arm or after a transplant.” The measured reaction gives an immediate impression of the condition of the vascular bed.

The researchers were able to reach these high speeds by using a broad laser beam to simultaneously illuminate the entire area of skin in question. Images are made of the tissue with a high-speed camera. Laser light that is scattered by moving red blood cells gives variation in the clarity of the pixels as a result of the Doppler Effect. Up till now it had been a problem transferring all the data to the computer quickly enough, but real time images are now enabled by making better use of the camera memory.

Now that the newest modifications have been made, the camera is ready for clinical application, Steenbergen says. The TOPCam is also suitable for other applications such as the assessment of blood circulation in diabetics. This research, which was carried out by the BMTI, was financed by the Technology Foundation (STW).

Journal reference:

1.       Matthijs Draijer, Erwin Hondebrink, Ton van Leeuwen, and Wiendelt Steenbergen. Twente Optical Perfusion Camera: system overview and performance for video rate laser Doppler perfusion imaging. Optics Express, 2009; 17 (5): 3211-3225 DOI: 10.1364/OE.17.003211

Adapted from materials provided by University of Twente.

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Computer Simulations Help Fine-tune Laser Attack On Cancer

ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2009) — Two lasers may be better than one when attacking cancer cells, according to a paper by Rice University scientists.

Yildiz Bayazitoglu, Rice's H.S. Cameron Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and an authority on heat transfer and fluid flow, and doctoral student Jerry Vera are using computer simulations to quantify the effect of heating nanoparticles with near-infrared lasers to kill cancer tumors without damaging healthy tissue.

They hope to raise the efficiency of destroying tumors by fine-tuning methods of heating them based on the size and composition of not only the tumor but also the surrounding tissue.

The paper summarizing their results is published in the January issue of the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.

The researchers found that attacking a tumor with two lasers can heat it more thoroughly than a single laser. For tumors as large as one centimeter, simulations showed opposing lasers surgically inserted via fiber optics in a minimally invasive procedure produced the most uniform temperature profile in every case.

Lasers and nanoparticles are already being used to treat cancer. A Houston company founded by Rice scientists Jennifer West and Naomi Halas, Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc., is conducting human tests of a system that uses nanoshells heated by near-infrared lasers to kill tumors. Bayazitoglu, West and Halas are all part of Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics.

The Bayazitoglu group's approach would refine such treatment by taking into account the light-scattering properties of nanoparticles. Their concern is that nanoparticles near the surface of a tumor will block a laser from reaching those at the center.

"Think about it this way: If you’re driving on a very foggy night, you can only see just so far no matter how good your headlights are," wrote Vera in an article about the research. "That's because the millions of small water droplets in the air absorb and scatter the light, deflecting the beams from your headlights before they can reflect off of whatever’s ahead of you on the road.

"Nanoparticles dispersed within a tumor do exactly the same thing. They're very good at absorbing laser light and generating heat, but within particularly thick tumors, that same quality prevents a lot of the light from reaching deeper into the tissue."

Bayazitoglu said this phenomenon, called "extinction," is "highly undesirable." A uniform temperature profile of at least 60 degrees Celsius has to be created to kill the whole tumor. "Raising the temperature on one end but not the other will simply allow the tumor to re-grow, and that doesn't solve the problem – or cure the patient."

The density and placement of nanoparticles in the tumor are important, said Bayazitoglu. "Ideally, you should put nanoparticles at the center of the tumor, then kill it from the center out," she said.

Laser treatment may be effective even if nanoparticles are not used, she said. "If the tumor has good absorption properties, slow heating can do a good job of killing the cancer, because the heat has time to get inside. If you're doing that, sometimes it's better not to use nanoparticles."

With so many tissue types and the great variety of cancers people face, the importance of accurate simulations cannot be overemphasized, the researchers said. They hope the ability to calculate scenarios will allow doctors to find the best laser therapy to produce the perfect heating environment.

The research was funded by the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate program through the National Science Foundation.

Journal reference:

1.       Jerry Vera and Yildiz Bayazitoglu. Gold nanoshell density variation with laser power for induced hyperthermia. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2009; 52 (3-4): 564 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2008.06.036

Adapted from materials provided by Rice University.

http://www.physorg.com/print157309129.html

Cobalt Nanoparticles Boost Imaging Sensitivity and Edge Detection

March 26th, 2009 in Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

(PhysOrg.com) -- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can serve as a very sensitive technique for detecting small tumors in the body, but it is not as good at identifying the edges of a tumor. Photoacoustic imaging tomography (PAT) is not as sensitive as MRI, but it excels at pinpointing the location of subsurface tissue structures, presumably including the edges of tumors. To take advantage of the best of both of these imaging techniques, a team of investigators led by Fanqing Frank Chen, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, has developed a “nanowonton” of cobalt and gold to create an imaging contrast agent for use with both MRI and PAT.

Reporting its work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, this team describes how it created the imaging agent by first preparing cobalt nanoparticles and then coating them with a uniform layer of gold. Cobalt nanoparticles are highly effective as MRI contrast enhancing agents, but by themselves, they are not suitable for use in humans. The gold layer not only makes the nanoparticles biocompatible but also adds PAT contrast enhancement as a particle characteristic. The investigators designed the gold coating to have a shape and thickness that maximizes the PAT response to a 700-nm imaging laser.

Imaging experiments with these nanowontons showed that they are detectable at low picomolar levels using MRI. This level of sensitivity would likely be sufficient to spot very small tumors in the body. Additional experiments confirmed that PAT was able to detect particle edges, which is where the PAT signal drops off dramatically. The investigators note that they are now experimenting with other nanoparticle shapes, particularly nanorods, with the goal of increasing MRI sensitivity. The researchers also note that with proper particle design, these hybrid nanomaterials also could serve as photothermal agents that could kill tumors by cooking them to death when energized by light.

This work, which is detailed in the paper “Picomolar sensitivity MRI and photoacoustic imaging of cobalt nanoparticles,” was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute’s Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE). Investigators from the University of California, Los Angeles, Lahore University in Pakistan, Bruker Optics, University of Michigan, and the University of California, Berkeley, also participated in this study. An abstract of this paper is available at the journal’s Web site.

Provided by National Cancer Institute

Web version: http://www.spie.org/x34542.xml

SPIE CEO says ‘aggressive’ action, coordinated portfolio will revive innovation in photonics

BELLINGHAM, Wash., USA — 26 March 2009 — “The United States must move aggressively to establish a new innovation infrastructure to become competitive again,” SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs said at a hearing on nanotechnology and optoelectronics in Washington, D.C., on 24 March.

Arthurs spoke as a member of a three-person panel before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, on the impact of industrial policy on U.S. companies, workers, and the economy. The commission reports to Congress annually on the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

Arthurs urged the commission to recommend that Congress develop “a comprehensive, informed review of the United States’ fragmented national photonics technology portfolio,” and provide ongoing, active guidance to federal science agencies.

For example, a comprehensive national policy will help ensure that decades of work in the Department of Energy laboratories, particularly the National Renewable Energy Lab, is applied to enabling solar energy manufacturing in America, Arthurs said.

Arthurs reiterated SPIE’s “unequivocal support” for R&D, but said that U.S. R&D no longer assured high value manufacturing jobs in the U.S. He agreed with earlier testimony on concerns about the devastating effect that the drive to increase immediate-term shareholder value has had on the U.S. economy.

“The focus on shareholder value has mitigated against the long view for R&D, and at least in part led to the divergence of the corporate interest from the national interest,” Arthurs said. “R&D is vitally important, but unless there is return on corporate and national R&D, a healthy U.S. R&D manufacturing symbiosis, R&D will dry up.”

He cautioned that the recent expansion in federal R&D funding to improve the nation’s competitiveness and innovation infrastructure “will be futile — if the end result does not include emphasis on capital investment in manufacturing technologies and the training of American workers.”

“The U.S. may continue to be world leaders in the science of LEDs or the semiconductor lasers that power the Internet, but the location of the semiconductor foundries and the know-how to manufacture in volume suggest that these “greenmanufacturing” jobs will be outside the U.S.,” Arthurs said.

Arthurs recommended that the government expand funding for the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as well as the set-aside amounts for the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) within science agencies. “The TIP Program at NIST is a small step in the right direction, but its funding is totally inadequate,” he said. “The excellent SBIR program should be expanded and the evaluation process should place more emphasis on local job creation.”

SPIE is the International Optics and Photonics Society, founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving more than 188,000 constituents from 138 countries, the Society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, and career and professional growth. SPIE annually organizes and sponsors approximately 25 major technical forums, exhibitions, and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. In 2008, the Society provided $1.9 million for scholarships, grants, and other activities supporting research and education around the world. For more information, visit SPIE.org.

# # # #

Media contacts:

Amy Nelson, Public Relations Manager

SPIE

+1 360 685 5478

amy@spie.org

# # # #

Stacey L. Crockett
Media Relations Coordinator

SPIE

Tel: +1 360 676 3290

Fax: +1 360 647 1445
staceyc@spie.org

http://spie.org

SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/uoc--hgn031809.php

Public release date: 22-Mar-2009
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Contact: Tim Stephens
stephens@ucsc.edu
831-459-2495
University of California - Santa Cruz

Hollow gold nanospheres show promise for biomedical and other applications

SALT LAKE CITY, UT--A new metal nanostructure developed by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has already shown promise in cancer therapy studies and could be used for chemical and biological sensors and other applications as well.

The hollow gold nanospheres developed in the laboratory of Jin Zhang, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSC, have a unique set of properties, including strong, narrow, and tunable absorption of light. Zhang is collaborating with researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, who have used the new nanostructures to target tumors for photothermal cancer therapy. They reported good results from preclinical studies earlier this year (Clinical Cancer Research, February 1, 2009).

Zhang will describe his lab's work on the hollow gold nanospheres in a talk on Sunday, March 22, at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City.

"What makes this structure special is the combination of the spherical shape, the small size, and the strong absorption in visible and near infrared light," Zhang said. "The absorption is not only strong, it is also narrow and tunable. All of these properties are important for cancer treatment."

Zhang's lab is able to control the synthesis of the hollow gold nanospheres to produce particles with consistent size and optical properties. The hollow particles can be made in sizes ranging from 20 to 70 nanometers in diameter, which is an ideal range for biological applications that require particles to be incorporated into living cells. The optical properties can be tuned by varying the particle size and wall thickness.

In the cancer studies, led by Chun Li of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, researchers attached a short peptide to the nanospheres that enabled the particles to bind to tumor cells. After injecting the nanospheres into mice with melanoma, the researchers irradiated the animals' tumors with near-infrared light from a laser, heating the gold nanospheres and selectively killing the cancer cells to which the particles were bound.

Cancer therapy was not the goal, however, when Zhang's lab began working several years ago on the synthesis and characterization of hollow gold nanospheres. Zhang has studied a wide range of metal nanostructures to optimize their properties for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). SERS is a powerful optical technique that can be used for sensitive detection of biological molecules and other applications.

Adam Schwartzberg, then a graduate student in Zhang's lab at UCSC, initially set out to reproduce work reported by Chinese researchers in 2005. In the process, he perfected the synthesis of the hollow gold nanospheres, then demonstrated and characterized their SERS activity.

"This process is able to produce SERS-active nanoparticles that are significantly smaller than traditional nanoparticle structures used for SERS, providing a sensor element that can be more easily incorporated into cells for localized intracellular measurements," Schwartzberg, now at UC Berkeley, reported in a 2006 paper published in Analytical Chemistry.

The collaboration with Li began when Zhang heard him speak at a conference about using solid nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy. Zhang immediately saw the advantages of the hollow gold nanospheres for this technique. Li uses near-infrared light in the procedure because it provides good tissue penetration. But the solid gold nanoparticles he was using do not absorb near-infrared light efficiently. Zhang told Li he could synthesize hollow gold nanospheres that absorb light most efficiently at precisely the wavelength (800 nanometers) emitted by Li's near-infrared laser.

"The heat that kills the cancer cells depends on light absorption by the metal nanoparticles, so more efficient absorption of the light is better," Zhang said. "The hollow gold nanospheres were 50 times more effective than solid gold nanoparticles for light absorption in the near-infrared."

Zhang's group has been exploring other nanostructures that can be synthesized using the same techniques. For example, graduate student Tammy Olson has designed hollow double-nanoshell structures of gold and silver, which show enhanced SERS activities compared to the hollow gold nanospheres.

The ability to tune the optical properties of the hollow nanospheres makes them highly versatile, Zhang said. "It is a unique structure that offers true advantages over other nanostructures, so it has a lot of potential," he said.

Masimo Corporation (MASI): Hemoglobin Launched; We Are Hosting A Conference Call With Dr. Ronald Miller At 10AM ET
Raj Denhoy | Healthcare | Medical Devices | 212.271.3698 | rdenhoy@tweisel.com

Rating: Overweight

Quick Take

What happened: This morning, Masimo announced it has initiated the full market launch of its continuous hemoglobin monitoring device (SpHb), the first non-invasive and continuous hemoglobin monitor to receive 510(k) clearance. At this point the device has been used at roughly 40 hospitals worldwide since its limited release in 3Q08. SpHb is one component of the Masimo Rainbow SET patient monitoring platform, which can also monitor oxygen content, carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, pulse rate and perfusion index. The timing of the launch was inline with the company's recent comments.

Very broad market potential: Masimo believes the continuous hemoglobin monitoring market could approach $1bn over the next several years and the success of the new technology will likely be a key focus for investors over the near term. At this point, we are modeling very conservative revenue forecasts in 2009 and 2010 ($8mn and $22mn, respectively), although more positive feedback on the clinical receptivity of the technology could move these forecasts higher. The hemoglobin monitor can be used in a variety of care settings, including surgery, intensive care, emergency room settings, doctor offices and long term care facilities, and can be used to help influence a number of clinical decisions, including blood transfusion, occult bleeding and anemia.

Positive initial feedback: Masimo's press release included feedback from Dr. Ronald Miller, Chief of Anesthesia at UCSF. Dr. Miller noted, "Masimo SpHb is an impressive new tool that helps us to more safely guide patients in surgery through to recovery. With it, not only can we spot hemoglobin changes as they occur, but we can see where they are heading. This ability to identify an upward or downward hemoglobin trend on a second by second basis as it occurs has been of tremendous value."

Dr. Ronald Miller is also the guest on our conference call this morning: We are hosting a "30-Minute Medtech" series conference call this morning at 10AM ET/ 7AM PT. We will be joined by Dr. Miller to get his more detailed insight on the new hemoglobin monitor and what he feels the potential for the technology could be. The dial in is 866-670-6360 with a passcode of 91550171.

Valuation: Our 12-month price target on MASI is $27.

The above text has been excerpted from the attached full report for your convenience. The above text is not intended to replace the full report and should be read only in conjunction with the full report. In addition, please see the important disclosure information that is provided at the end noted on page one of the full report. https://www.tweisel.com/ec_disclaimer.html

EXTON, Pa., March 23, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Therakos, Inc., a pioneer in immune cell therapy, today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the THERAKOS(TM) CELLEX(TM) Photopheresis System for the palliative (reducing the severity of symptoms) treatment of the skin manifestations (appearance) of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) that are unresponsive to other forms of treatment. The THERAKOS(TM) CELLEX(TM) Photopheresis System is an easy-to-use, integrated system that uses extracorporeal (outside the body) photopheresis (ECP), an innovative cellular therapy, to relieve the symptoms of CTCL. The system also has been cleared recently in Canada and Europe.

 http://www.therakos.com

Copyright (C) 2009 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Call for Papers: Recent developments in optical imaging, microscopy, and spectroscopic techniques have revolutionized the fields of vascular biology and medicine. Noninvasive in vivo  quantitation and localization of hemodynamic parameters at the molecular, cellular, and bulk tissue level is now possible in studies of vascular disease progression and response to therapeutic intervention. For this special section, we welcome submissions from scientists, engineers, and clinicians who are developing and/or applying optical technologies to study biological and biomedical issues related to the vasculature. The scope of this special section will emphasize three major themes of contemporary research in vascular biology and medicine:

• Interventional Cardiology emphasizes development and application of catheter-based methods to perform minimally invasive optical spectroscopy, imaging, and treatment of structural vascular disease.
• Wide-Field Vascular Imaging involves development and application of optical technologies to image vasculature and hemodynamics with a field of view on the order of millimeters to centimeters.
• The third theme will involve development and application of optical methods to study Angiogenesis and Vascular Functions during normal and abnormal tissue development and in response to therapeutic intervention.

Manuscripts due April 1, 2009

Expected Publication date: January/February 2010

Optical Methods in Vascular Biology and Medicine

Guest Editors:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=bendable-laser-scalpel&print=true

Extreme Tech -  March 4, 2009

Will a Bendable Laser Scalpel Make the Cut?

Flexible optical fibers would provide access to hard-to-reach areas of the body

By Larry Greenemeier

Laser technology has proved to be an invaluable surgical tool, be it to improve eyesight, repair torn retinas, zap kidney stones, or to delicately remove spinal tumors. Still, despite more than four decades of use in the operating room, laser surgery has been limited by the fact that its energy travels in straight lines. This means that a laser works best on areas that can be reached with a straight shot. Maneuvering the beam so that it can reach out-of-the-way areas—without damaging healthy tissue—is sometimes done, using a series of mirrors to guide the laser beam, but this typically dilutes the laser's strength.

An approach to laser surgery on the market for barely more than a year, however, seeks to add a new level of flexibility to optical scalpels by directing the infrared energy of a high-intensity carbon dioxide (CO2) laser through a flexible fiber tube lined with reflective material. This gives the surgeon the ability to snake the laser safely through the body to wherever it is needed without losing any of the beam's strength.

The BeamPath CO2 laser energy system (manufactured by OmniGuide, an optics company in Cambridge, Mass.) marks a significant improvement over optical scalpels used over the past three decades to perform precision microsurgery, says Yair Schindel, OmniGuide's vice president of clinical affairs and business development.

"Going deeper into the body, to places where you couldn't see, was impossible" with the old lasers, delivered through a large articulating arm, he says. "If you couldn't see it, you couldn't get to it."

OmniGuide chose the CO2 laser—produced by exciting carbon dioxide gas within a sealed tube—because it was already commonly used in operating rooms, given its ability to effectively ablate, cut and cauterize tissue. It is the most precise optical scalpel available, Schindel says, adding, other laser-light wavelengths, such as those created using argon or krypton lasers, are not absorbed as quickly by certain human tissues, "so they do more cooking than cutting."

Still, conventional CO2 lasers have difficulty with incisions that must be made at awkward angles. "If you think of a large tumor in the throat, you would have to shoot the laser from [16 inches (40 centimeters)] away, manipulating both the light and the patient to reach the tumor," Schindel says. The alternative: a laryngectomy, a less precise procedure in which all or some the vocal cords are removed. OmniGuide's laser can also be used with a flexible fiber–tipped endoscope. "The surgeon can go through the nose, mouth, ear or other small openings," Schindel says, "and [laser] and view at the same time."

Inside each BeamPath fiber, fewer than 20 microscopic layers of alternating, custom-designed infrared glass and polymer form a reflective system known as a "photonic band-gap structure." (pdf) The design stemmed from research conducted by OmniGuide co-founder and CEO Yoel Fink in 1998 when he was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (M.I.T.) Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Fink and his colleagues studied ways to devise the "perfect mirror," a surface that reflects light of all wavelengths and from all angles, for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Defense Department's the research arm. Since its 2000 start up, OmniGuide has invested $70 million into researching and developing the materials and technology needed to produce this superthin silicon fiber.

Water, which constitutes more than 60 percent of human tissue, absorbs CO2 laser energy well, enabling such devices to make a more precise cut than a normal scalpel with minimal thermal damage to surrounding healthy tissue, says Lee Nelson, a neurosurgeon with Boulder Neurosurgical Associates in Colorado. BeamPath technology allows CO2 laser energy to be transmitted down a hollow-core fiber and used as a handheld laser scalpel, which Nelson says he used in 30 brain and spinal cord surgeries that he has performed since October. "We knew about the advantages of the CO2 laser," he says, "but it had never been practical to use."

The BeamPath allows surgeons to do some procedures that a normal scalpel cannot do. For example, when a surgeon presses a regular metal scalpel into an organ, it depresses the tissue around it, potentially causing damage to healthy cells surrounding targeted tumors. Unlike a normal scalpel, the BeamPath fiber does not require tissue manipulation, Nelson says, adding, it also controls bleeding better than a metal scalpel by cauterizing, or searing and sealing, nearby blood vessels.

The flexible CO2 laser scalpel has special appeal for lower-back surgery, an area where diseased tissue is often difficult to remove. "When you remove this tissue with standard tools, you are sometimes left with arthritic tissue in the spinal canal causing patients to continue to feel pain even after the surgery," Nelson says. "With the CO2 laser, you can dissolve that [damaged] tissue. Instead of pulling or tearing that tissue, we're now simply ablating it." Nelson says that so far, the patients he has treated this way have experienced less pain than those who have undergone traditional surgery, but he adds that he needs a few more years to expand his sample size enough to prove that the laser is the reason for the reduction in pain.

The cost of the technology—from $500 to $1,800 a fiber—has been the major reason it is not used more widely yet. Nelson says he needs to prove that the BeamPath improves patient outcomes to justify opening his wallet for more of these devices. There are two potential limitations on the fibers: their stability when energized and their inability to be sterilized, which means they must be discarded after each use, Nelson notes.

The fiber used to channel the laser typically lasts four hours, tops, before the laser burns through it and it needs to be replaced, says Bruce Haughey, director of head and neck surgical otolaryngology at Barnes–Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis. He notes that the scalpel's fibers can be replaced in a matter of minutes, however, it also takes longer to make incisions using the BeamPath than it does using straight, line of sight CO2 lasers, because the new technology delivers only about 20 watts, half the cutting power that surgeons wield with the older variety.

Haughey, who has performed about 100 surgeries since 2007 with the BeamPath, says he uses the device to remove tumors—to do minimally invasive microsurgery on patients who would otherwise have had to go under the knife to have malignancies removed from hard-to-reach spots, such as the base of the tongue, the mouth floor, or the side walls of the pharynx (the part of the neck and throat directly behind the mouth and nasal cavity). Haughey says that the flexible BeamPath fiber extends the reach of the laser scalpel in close quarters, easily and safely negotiating healthy tissue to reach targeted growths. To do that in the past, "we could rather crudely bounce the laser off a mirror, but (the beam) lost a lot of power that way," he says, adding that he did that only once or twice out of the thousands of surgeries he has performed.

BeamPath is now primarily used by orthopedic as well as ear, nose and throat surgeons, but Schindel says that gynecologists, pulmonologists and urologists are also interested in seeing if this technology can make the cut.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/nomir-medical-receives-frost-/story.aspx?guid={5C74C123-68AC-4BF1-9E10-86258451FAED}&dist=msr_2

PRESS RELEASE

Nomir Medical Receives Frost & Sullivan Award for Development of Noveon(R)

Last update: 9:03 a.m. EST March 4, 2009

WALTHAM, Mass., Mar 04, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Nomir Medical Technologies, a leader in the development of optical energy technologies for medical applications, has been awarded the 2009 Frost & Sullivan North American Technology Innovation of the Year Award for Advanced Microbial Destruction Technologies for its development of the Noveon(R) technology platform. The Noveon is a light-based system that utilizes two discrete, near-infrared wavelengths at low power to eliminate bacterial and fungal infections through a photo-biological method-of-action. The system's unique, near-infrared photo-inactivation effect preserves healthy tissue and promotes recovery.

The Award will be presented at Frost & Sullivan's 2009 Excellence in Medical Technologies & Life Sciences Awards Banquet in San Francisco on March 18, 2009.

"Nomir Medical is honored to receive this significant Award from Frost & Sullivan," said Richard Burtt, President and CEO of Nomir Medical. "This recognition illustrates the potentially breakthrough nature of the Noveon as a new treatment paradigm for bacterial and fungal infections and as an alternative to pharmacological therapy. This technology platform has thus far been validated in human clinical trials in both onychomycosis and MRSA and we believe that its potential utility extends far beyond these indications. We look forward to soon reporting results from the pivotal trial in onychomycosis and, pending FDA approval of the device for this indication, commercializing Noveon for onychomycosis treatment."

The Frost & Sullivan Award is presented to a company (or individual) that has carried out new research that has resulted in innovation(s) that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the medical field, and recognizes the quality, depth and vision of a company's research and development program. In considering Award recipients, the Frost & Sullivan analyst team considers the pace of research and technology innovation; the significance or potential relevance of the innovation to the overall industry; and criteria such as the significance of the innovation in the industry, potential of the products of innovation to become industry-standard and the competitive advantages of the innovation vis-a-vis other related innovations.

After multiple IRB human pilot studies with Noveon against onychomycosis (toe nail fungus), Nomir initiated an FDA pivotal study of its Noveon device for this indication in May 2008, an integral step for FDA clearance of the application. Nomir has also completed two IRB human studies with Noveon against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage and infection in the nares (nose). Based on positive data from these studies, Nomir is initiating a pilot study with Noveon for the reduction of bioburden in diabetic foot ulcers.

Nomir Medical also recently announced a second FDA 510(k) clearance of the Company's advanced Noveon system. With this clearance, the device may now be utilized during procedures of the skin, subcutaneous tissues and nasal passages, for applications in podiatry, dermatology, plastic surgery, and otolaryngology.

About Nomir

Nomir Medical Technologies, Inc. is a medical device and photobiology company with a product pipeline of optical energy therapeutics being developed for multiple clinical applications. Nomir's light-based systems target the elimination of bacterial and fungal infections, while also promoting healthy tissue recovery. This potential therapy-altering technology may enhance the effectiveness of, or even reduce the need for antibiotics and antifungal agents, and may be associated with fewer treatment side-effects. Nomir has a broad patent portfolio with multiple patents and patents pending on systems, methods and unique photobiological mechanism claims for near-infrared photodamage to bacterial and fungal pathogens.

www.nomirmedical.com

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this press release containing words like believe, intend, may, expect, project and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements involving a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the Company's forward-looking statements include the following: market acceptance of our technologies, therapies, and products; our ability to obtain financing; our financial and technical resources relative to those of our competitors; our ability to keep up with rapidly changing technologies; government regulations of our technologies; our ability to assert and enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary technologies; the ability to attract and retain key employees; the ability to obtain and develop partnership opportunities; the timing of commercial product launches; the ability to achieve key milestones in key products and other risks factors from time to time in the Company's announcements.

SOURCE: Nomir Medical Technologies

Media: 

MacDougall Biomedical Communications 

Jennifer Greenleaf-Conrad, 781-235-3060 

or 

Nomir Medical Technologies, Inc. 

Richard Burtt, 781-893-1000 ext. 403 

Chief Executive Officer

 http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=20772&type=Feature&chId=2&page=1