The Breakthrough Technology
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PARS® is a disruptive new optical imaging modality! illumiSonics has partnered with Dr. Parsin Haji Reza’s University of Waterloo PhotoMedicine Labs to develop, validate and commercialize PARS® across a range of different clinical applications. Dr. Haji Reza is the inventor and pioneer of PARS®photoacoustic remote sensing technology and all IP generated through this collaboration is owned by illumiSonics. What is PARS® - Photoacoustic Remote Sensing? Traditional photoacoustic provides optical absorption contrast allowing for complex multiplexing images (e.g. combining different targets such as hemoglobin, DNA, Lipids in one image). Unlike other optical imaging modalities, it delivers both functional and molecular imaging. PARS® is the first ever “all- optical, non-contact” photoacoustic imaging system. The adoption of photoacoustic imaging outside the research has been constraint by the need for tissue contact. PARS® is an extremely flexible imaging modality that provides:
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(PARS®) Can Image Anything that Absorbs Light.
PARS® is Applicable to a Wide Range of Applications.
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PRE-CLINICAL
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PATHOLOGY/ REALTIME PATHOLOGY
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SURGICAL GUIDANCE
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OPHTHALMIC
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INTERVENTIONAL Dx GUIDANCE
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Image Library
Structural/Functional Imaging
In vivo images of the CAM from a chicken embryo. (a) En-face C-scan PARS® images (b) A snapshot of real-time imaging of capillaries at 30 FPS. (c) PARS® images of a melanoma tumor and surrounding vasculature. Scale bar: 100 μm. [Light: Science & Applications 6.6 (2017): e16278]
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Blood oxygenation mapping within a mouse ear and mouse microvasculature structure. [Optica 5.7 (2018): 814-820.]
Label Free Histology
Overview of PARS® histologic imaging workflow as compared to conventional light microscopy. (a) Conventional imaging of H&E-stained slides is performed on a bright-field microscope where the Hematoxylin (purple hues) and Eosin (red hues) stains block light from a white source. PARS® may image (b) unstained FFPE slide preparations, (c) unstained FFPE blocks and (d) unprocessed tissues by taking advantage of the intrinsic optical absorption provided by the cell nuclei (DNA) and the surrounding cytoplasm (cytochrome). We image each intermediate step along the FFPE process in this paper using a single system configuration to show the versatility of PARS® . No other reported technique has reported all of these capabilities in a single modality. [Sci Rep 10, 19121 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76155-6]]
Several comparisons between PARS® and conventional bright-field images of FFPE slides of human brain tissues. a) A WFOV scan using 266 nm excitation with b) a matching wide field image of the adjacent slide which has been H&E stained. c) A two-color (250 nm and 420 nm) PARS® with a false-colour map applied to match d) the adjacent H&E region. Finally e) and f) likewise show a two-color PARS® and bright-field image respectively in higher detail. [Sci Rep 10, 19121 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76155-6]
Several PARS® images of a human skin sample mounted as a frozen section slide. (a) A WFOV PARS® acquisition of the sample using the single color 266 nm system. The two-color PARS® was then used over smaller field the views in (b) and (c) focusing on the outer tissue layers. Still smaller field of views are shown in (d-g) highlighting the details available within the epidermal layers. These layers are annotated in (d). [Sci Rep 10, 19121 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76155-6]
PARS® imaging performed on frozen sections from a Mohs procedure. (a) and (b) show WFOV single-color acquisitions of two separate entire frozen sections. Inset with (b) is an image of the unstained section mounted on a glass slide. (c) shows a higher density scan of the highlighted region in (b). (d) shows a smaller FOV of the highlighted region in (a) captured with the two-color system along with (e) the adjacent section stained with toluidine blue captured on a standard bright-field microscope. (f) shows a neary region of healthy tissue captured on the two-color PARS® which was likewise taken from the highlighted region in (a). [Sci Rep 10, 19121 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76155-6]