The Osteoporosis Research Center at Alegent Creighton University Medical Center will be the home of a new state-of-the-art high resolution 3D X-ray microscope.
Dr. Robert Recker, Director of the Osteoporosis Research Center, says the microscope uses high resolution radiation, coupled with high resolution light waves, to examine tissue specimens on slides.
Dr. Recker says the microscope is a research tool that allows doctors to detect things down one half micron or 1/133rds the thickness of a human hair.
Though the microscope won’t arrive at Creighton until October, Dr. Recker says they’re already sending human tissue samples to the company for analysis.
"We see what appears to be a distribution of these bone cells that would be appropriate for them to be able to sense loads and respond to them. If they’re not responding and we have a fragile skeleton, is it because the cells aren’t as numerous as they should be, in other words, are they distributed where they ought to be or are they not?”
Dr. Recker says the new microscope will help researchers gather information to explain why some people break bones when they shouldn’t.