Innovation

In the late 1960’s, Newport's researchers successfully detected the ultrafast laser, a new laser that is highly precise with little energy lost. By using the ultrafast laser, the researchers initiated Two-photon Excitation Microscopy in the next few years and successfully realized it in 1991.

Two-photon Excitation Microscopy is a fluorescence imaging technique that allows imaging of living tissues up to incredible depth. Because of this innovation, people could get a much more precise vision when observing living cells. The characters of clearly fluorescent view made Two-photon excitation microscopy finally become the most crucial foundation for developing the super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, which was developed in 2006 and won the Nobel Prize Chemistry in 2014.

Inspiration

In the 1960s, although modern medicine developed fast and made many significant breakthroughs, scientists still didn’t know the etiologic factors of many diseases such as HIV and Alzheimer. Because light diffraction limited the optical imaging system and people can’t see the nano-world less than 0.2 μm radii, scientists didn’t know how the cell protein acted when the cytopathic effect happened. This limitation made incurable diseases still hopeless. In this context, John Matthews, the founder of Newport Corporation recognized that, besides business, health is a permanent problem of our human being. He thought if the business could offer strong support to the development of medical science by doing business that makes those medical ideas happen, the benefit to both the company and society would be significant. It could not only offer more people the opportunities to survive, but also bring tremendous opportunities and sustainable development for business. Thus, as the laser technology leader, Newport began its collaborative research with Bell Laboratories and offered most of the research funding.

Overall impact

The meaning of Two-photon Excitation Microscopy is significant. Especially in the medical world, this technology innovation provides people more chances to survive when we are facing incurable diseases, such as HIV, Parkinson, and Alzheimer. It ensures the healthy lives and promotes well-being for human beings.

Business benefit

As the main instrument provider of both ultrafast laser technology and Two-photon Excitation Microscopy equipment, Newport holds more than 60% market share of ultrafast laser transmitter. Many global optical device companies, such as Nikon, Zeiss, and Olympus, have long term businesses with Newport. Take the Chinese market as an example. Of the myopic provincial hospitals in China, 76% laser surgical apparatus for ophthalmological treatment use the transmitter made by Newport. Nearly 90% of the ophthalmic surgery laser equipment of Beijing Tongren Hospital, which is famous for its ophthalmological treatment, holds the transmitters made by Newport. As a leading global supplier of ultrafast laser technology products, Newport makes a great economic profit. Roughly 37% of its annual revenue comes from the sales, after-sales service and equipment maintenance of the ultrafast laser transmitter and other related equipment. Until now, Newport has kept investing 30 million dollars every year on technical research and cutting-edge innovation to make the company much more competitive.

Social and environmental benefit

The application of Ultrafast laser and Two-photon Excitation Microscopy help people survive from diseases, especially non-communicable diseases.

First of all, the most well-known example of the application of this new technology is the eye surgery, which was realized in 1996. Medical experts use it as the ultraprecise surgical scalpel because it could both greatly reduce the tissues damage and don't leave any sequelae. In 2010, by using the ultrafast laser, scientists from the University of Amsterdam successfully tracked the cancer cells in the human brain in less than one minute. By using the precise location of the cancer cells, doctors could identify and remove the brain tumor without any damage to the healthy tissue. Before this new technology, pathologists usually needed 48 hours to identify the cancer cells. Because of this, doctors needed to have at least two operations. One to get the cells sample first and another, after identification, to remove them. Thus, the application of ultrafast both significantly minimize the pain for the patient and dramatically increased the possibility to have a successful surgery.

Second, the new technology makes a significant contribution to the research of Parkinson, HIV, and Alzheimer. Take Alzheimers as an example. according to data from the World Health Organization, as of 2016, 47.5 million people in the world are struggling with Alzheimers, and this number is growing as fast as 16%(7.7 million) per year. Because the Two-photon Excitation Microscopy could offer a great precise vision in nanoscale and photon doesn’t damage any cells and proteins, this technology makes the research of living diseased cells possible. Using this innovation, scientists could see the protein particles in cells very clearly and could track the pathological changes from the very beginning of Parkinson, HIV, and Alzheimers. Once we could discover the nosogenesis of and develop new medicines for these diseases, we could save a significant number of lives every year.

Interview

Wilson Lin, Vice President