Functional and molecular optical imaging

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This proposal aims to develop optical and molecular imaging techniques along a main theme: imaging for neuronal applications. This development is oriented along three main axes: 1-The first axis is the study of neuronal activations in humans by optical imaging. Here, using the physics of light propagation in the brain, fusion and co-registration with other modalities (fMRI and EEG), and image reconstruction are the main developments proposed. The goals are to get a unifying view of electrophysiological, metabolic and hemodynamic processes through neuronal imaging and modelling. 2-Over the last few years, biomedical imaging has taken significant steps towards a new paradigm. We now see the emergence of new imaging techniques enabling in-vivo molecular imaging. These new methods provide a minimally invasive characterization and measurement of biological processes at the cellular and molecular levels of living organism. These new methods offer great promises: early detection of diseases manifestations, real-time assessment of therapy effectiveness, specific and selective delivery of drugs to targeted tissues. The second axis is linked to fluorescent optical imaging, for both the brain and spinal chord of small and medium animals. For example, the study of the neuronal response present in the spinal chord could yield answers to walk integration and help us better understand spinal chord injuries. Studies devoted to the understanding of these issues are emerging and we believe that optical imaging has a role to play in this understanding. 3-The third axis is the development of photo-acoustic imagers and techniques for imaging small animals. Recent research and advances in transducers show that this hybrid method can provide images with much higher resolution than standard diffuse optical imaging. On the other hand, limitations with respect to the size of the tissue probed suggest that the method is relevant for very specific problems. Here we want to develop this technique specializing on molecular imaging (through spectroscopy) for neuronal applications (brain and spinal chord) in small animals.