scientist' lasers lead the way
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Dr. Tong uses his lasers for scientific breakthroughs.TRANSCRIPT
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Vol. 95, Issue 22
Students react to recent columnsin this week’s letters to the editor.
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The Aztecs lost a game for thefirst time since Sept. 6 this pastweekend.
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STREAK SNAPPED
Tehran Summer
7 p.m., Nasatir Hall room 100
Dr. Babak Rahimi, professor of Iranianand Islamic studies at UCSD, willdiscuss his first-hand experience ofthe summer’s events in Iran.
Check out where the country’sbest athletes train whenpreparing for the big games.
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For more of today’s headlines, visit:www.thedailyaztec.com In a San Diego State chemistry lab
devoid of the typical test tubes andbeakers, Dr. William G. Tong iscontributing to biomedical andnational security breakthroughswith his lasers.
Tong, a chemistry and biochem-istry professor at SDSU, has beendeveloping laser technology for thelast 24 years. And within the lastfew, he has been able to createsmaller, more efficient and morecompact lasers.
“Just in the last few years, lasersare shrinking, getting better and forthe first time, combining it with ourtechniques,” Tong said.
The main use for Tong’s lasersis biomedical research. The laserscan detect the smallest trace of a
chemical, which makes them use-ful for detecting diseases, pollu-tion, greenhouse gasses and bio-chemical agents.
“The idea is, we use multiplelaser beams … and we cross thosebeams and our signal is generatedwhen the two beams meet,” Tongsaid. “And that means that we canpoint that pair of laser beams any-where and we have both two-dimen-sional spatial resolution and three-dimensional spatial resolution.”
Tong’s methods and laser tech-nology can detect particles in parts-per-trillion and parts-per-quadrillionby measuring the isotopes.
After discovering his laser tech-nology was being used in biomed-ical research, Tong was approachedby security and defense officials touse his lasers to help identifybombs and explosives. His lasersare compact enough to take into thefield and efficient enough to obtainsamples without being next to thesource — though Tong can’t sayfrom how far away they can be usedfor security reasons.
Tong’s lasers have potential usein other fields as well. The sametechnology can be used for authen-tication of paintings and archaeo-logical applications.
However, Tong’s main focusremains as biomedical research.
“You know, our main thing isstill detecting diseases at earlystages and doing it at such low sen-sitivity levels, good sensitivity levelsand little or no false positives.”
With the portability of the lasersand the development of what iscalled a “lab-on-a-chip,” which con-tains both an electronic circuit boardand channels for analyzing chemi-cals, it is possible to gain access toplaces that aren’t as easy to accessand could help with diseases such asthe Human Papilloma Virus.
Although Tong is the developerof SDSU’s laser technology, he doesconsider it a collaborative effort.Tong works with undergraduate,graduate and Ph.D. students, aswell as visiting professors.
One Ph.D. student, Marcel Hetu,is contributing to Tong’s biomed-ical research.
“I’ve been doing a lot of proteinanalysis and particularly trying tofind biomarkers for diseases andtrying to monitor those,” Hetu said.“I want to be sure that I’m doingstuff that’s really going to create anew age in diagnostics. And eventu-ally I’d like to use that knowledge tobe able to do that same type ofwork at a company where we cantake this from a lab setting intomore of a clinical setting.”
In the future, Tong hopes to con-tinue making his lasers smaller,faster and easier to use, so thathopefully they can have a greatervariety of uses.
“It’s exciting to be developingand designing new things that cando exciting things that were previ-ously not possible,” Tong said.“And especially because these newsystems that we’re inventing ordesigning could help in a lot ofimportant areas.”
SSAARRAAHH KKOOVVAASSHHS E N I O R S TA F F W R I T E R
SDSU professor William Tong has developed lasers for biochemical research the past 24 years. The technology has recently been used for bomb and chemical detection. Glenn Connelly / Photo Editor
Laser technology forbiochemical researchbeing put to new use
Scientist’s lasers lead the way
AS BRIEF
Next Town Hall meeting setThe second of five town hall meet-ings will take place from noon to 1p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20. on theFree Speech Steps.
This meeting will focus on spe-cific changes to advocate for interms of budget cuts to the Califor-nia State University system.
“What I’m expecting is to openup a forum to host a discussionabout what it is students can do orto advocate for, for higher educa-
tion in the coming year,”Associated Students PresidentTyler Boden said.
“There is no clear direction thatwe should take and there aremany options that we have, andI’d like us in this forum to … getcloser to being able to specify whatit is that we want to advocate for.”
A.S. will also be setting upforums for students to communi-cate their thoughts and opinionsabout the budget cuts viaFacebook, Twitter and an A.S. blog.
Homecoming is comingSan Diego State’s Homecomingfootball game will be Oct. 17, whenSDSU will face BYU at QualcommStadium. There will be events theentire week before the game, start-ing Monday. Some events includea dance competition, a film screen-ing, pep rally and circus night. Fora full list of events, visit the A.S.Web site athttp://as.sdsu.edu/index.html.
Tailgate parties planned In an effort to increase the amountof home game attendees, A.S. ishosting tailgate parties beforeevery home game this season.
The festivities start at 1 p.m. andinclude various catered food, discjockeys and assorted vendors. Thenext home game will be at 3 p.m.on Oct. 17 at Qualcomm Stadium.
—Compiled by Senior Staff WriterSarah Kovash