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Breakthrough fluorescent imaging for precise cancer cryosurgery

Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have developed a specialised nanoscale material that illuminates cancer cells under freezing conditions, enhancing surgeons’ ability to detect and remove cancer cells during cryosurgery.

What is Cryosurgery?
Cryosurgery  (also called  cryotherapy  or  cryoablation) is a medical procedure that uses extreme cold (typically liquid nitrogen or argon gas) to freeze and destroy abnormal or diseased tissue. It is a minimally invasive technique employed in various medical fields for both therapeutic and cosmetic purposes.

 

Cryosurgery offers a minimally invasive treatment of cancers resistant to conventional therapies. It uses extreme cold, typically −20°C to −40°C, to selectively ablate malignant tissue. However, the clinical success of this technique is constrained by the limited ability of current imaging techniques to differentiate effectively between cancerous and healthy tissues with high spatial resolution.

 

Current imaging techniques such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are essential for cryosurgery, but due to their limited resolution at the molecular level, they are often unable to determine the extent of frozen tissue reliably.

 

Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have developed a specialised nanoscale material that illuminates cancer cells under freezing conditions, making them easier to distinguish from healthy tissue and improving surgical precision.

 

This unique material, a nanoscale Covalent Organic Framework (nTG-DFP-COF), is specifically designed to increasing its fluorescence under low temperatures. It is engineered to be biocompatible and low in toxicity, ensuring it interacts safely within the body. Importantly, it maintains its fluorescent properties even in the presence of ice crystals inside cells, allowing real-time monitoring during cryosurgery.

 

Fluorescence imaging, a non-invasive technique that uses light-sensitive dyes to highlight tumours, has gained traction for its ability to provide real-time insights during surgery. However, its use in cryosurgery had remained largely unexplored until now.

 

For more information, details of the research are published in open access in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

 

 

Sources

[1] https://phys.org/news/2025-03-nanoscale-material-illuminates-cancer-cells.html  

[2] Farah Benyettou et al. Freezing-Activated Covalent Organic Frameworks for Precise Fluorescence Cryo-Imaging of Cancer Tissue, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025). https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c13848