NON-CONTACT FLUORESCENCE DIFFUSE OPTICAL TOMOGRAPHY FOR MOLECULAR IMAGING

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Using fluorescent probes is an important methodology for in vivo molecular imaging, particularly to study small animal cancer models. Nonetheless the lack of tomographical imaging capability is limiting fluorescence imaging primarily to topographical mapping of superficial tissue. Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography (F-DOT) is an emerging technology capable of resolving the distribution of fluorophore concentration in 3-D. However, the majority of existing techniques require fiber-optics to couple the light sources and detectors with the animal, which significantly restricts its applications and achievable resolution. We are implementing a non-contact F-DOT system that uses raster-scanning pulsed laser and time-gated intensified CCD (ICCD) camera with a rotational state for the animal to resolve 3-D fluorescence images. We demonstrate our preliminary result from a phantom study using a scanning continuous-wave diode laser. Further study is under way in the directions of pulsed laser and time-gated acquisition; regularized image reconstruction techniques; and simultaneous multimodal imaging with our micro-CT system.