Backed by industry and the European Commission, the ‘Brighter’ project is delivering powerful 635 and 650 nm laser diodes for medical applications as the first of its many goals.
“A laser-guided silver bullet to certain forms of cancer,” is how Eric Larkins describes photodynamic therapy – the treatment in which cancer drugs are activated by light. Despite this powerful description, laser-activated photodynamic therapy (PDT) systems are limited by commercially available diode laser technologies, most of which were developed for CD players and telecom applications.
“The problem that doctors have is actually getting the wavelength and the powers that they need, as power is directly related to dosage,” explained Larkins, the spokesperson for a multimillion euro research project called Brighter.
Now, Brighter is promising to boost the effectiveness of PDT, with high-power 635 and 650 nm diodes primed for manufacture.
Popularity: 3% [?]
