Biopsies are a gold standard for definitively diagnosing diseases like cancer. Usually, doctors can only take 2-D snapshots of the tissue, and they’re limited in their ability to measure the protein levels that might better explain a diagnosis. But now, researchers have developed a new method to acquire 3-D atlases of tissue that provide much more information, incorporating both data on the tissue structure and its molecular profile.

Science Daily recently highlighted three Notre Dame cancer researchers, Dr. Jeremiah Zartman, Dr. Siyuan Zhang and Dr. David Hoelzle, for their novel approach  that generates a high resolution, 3-D fluorescent staining of tissue microbiopsies in a microfluidic device without destroying the tissue. Click here to read Science Daily’s  Better Biopsies Through Biofluidics.

Originally published by Jenna Bilinski at harpercancer.nd.edu on March 08, 2016.