Medical

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Terra Scientia has developed patented technology for tagging and locating objects of interest in the health and biological sciences. One of the most essential and fundamental processes in the health sciences is to detect and locate objects of interest using techniques that often require some type of tagging, such as a colored dye, fluorescent dye or pigment, chemiluminescence, quantum dots, or

radioactive materials. Most methods provide the investigator a visual field, either direct or via an imaging technology, for seeing the object of import. With advancing automation in this field the need to visualize the field is decreasing whereas pin-point detection is increasing – such as in the use of laser ablation of individual cancer cells.

Our technology leverages the superior reflective nature of retroreflectors, which can be in the form of linear retroreflectors, prisms, spheres or cat’s eye – and may be made to be very small and benign. They may also be sensitized with target specific adhesion qualities with various ligand chemistries. These optical reflectors provide superior sensitivity and detection at great distances.

A highly coherent light source combined with a collinear detector can scan and detect these retroreflectors even through turbid media such as skin. Beyond the micro world, we envision using this technique for such tasks as: locating implantable micro-devices, locating and ablating tagged cancer cells, or locating and UV curing adhesives.