Seeing Raman Spectroscopic Images through Different Scaled Glasses — Uncovering Hidden Markers of Disease —

A research group led by Professor Tamiki Komatsuzaki of Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) and Research Institute for Electronic Science at Hokkaido University, in collaboration with Professor Katsumasa Fujita of Graduate School of Engineering at The University of Osaka and Professor Yoshinori Harada of Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto prefecture University of Medicine, has developed a new analytical method for Raman microscopy by defining a novel metric to take spatial orders into account of chemical microenvironment.

Raman microscopy is a powerful non-invasive technique that provides detailed molecular maps of biological tissues. However, its conventional applications have been focused only on chemical ingredients rather than their spatial order over the sample. In this study, the research team introduces a measure to quantify spatial heterogeneity of chemical ingredients over the sample and clustrering the Raman images into several classes in terms of not chemical ingredients, conventionally analyzed, but the measure of spatial heterogeneity in the chemical environment. Analyzing environmental differences has led to successful identification of previously invisible pathological features within biological samples. The method holds promise for a wide range of applications with different scaled Raman glasses. It is expected to aid in the detection of asbestos fibers or microplastics in tissues and the discovery of unique molecular signatures localized within tumors, offering new possibilities for diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

This research was published online in Science Report on Monday, October 13, 2025 (JST)

Contact

Professor Tamiki Komatsuzaki
Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University

Tel/Fax: +81-11-706-9434

E-mail: tamiki[at]es.hokudai.ac.jp