Small animal tomographic imager for luminescence, fluorescence and CT

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Imaging methods for small animal models are an essential method in basic biomedical research to describe physiological and pathophysiological processes at the organismic level in relation to anatomy, metabolism, signal transduction and the interaction of different organs and cell types. Conventional optical imaging methods in 2D are limited both in their anatomical significance, the number of parameters that can be described and the fact that no real quantification is possible. With the planar 2D methods, the results are falsified to a considerable extent by scattering and absorption. As a result, precise localization and exact determination of intensities (and thus determination of the absolute concentration of probe molecules) are not possible. A tomographic small animal imager for luminescence, fluorescence and CT allows non-invasive imaging of the anesthetized, living organism (typically mouse) with considerable penetration depth, with microCT-corrected, improved 3D reconstruction of the optical signals and thus high accuracy of location and intensity data. The integrated microCT also provides an important anatomical reference for the observation of the probes via fluorescence and bioluminescence. Bioluminescence has also developed into a standard procedure for growth and therapy monitoring in preclinical oncology and for cell tracking in immunological questions. The research groups involved in the application deal with issues that require this state-of-the-art technology in order to be able to conduct competitive research. Specifically, this technology is required, for example, to localize cell migration through the precise 3D representation of the organism or to check the successful targeting of tumor cells by molecular probes through precise organ segmentation. The required methodical bases are already established in the working groups and an optical system, which enables this detection, is accordingly required.