Functional and molecular optical imaging

这项建议旨在发展光学和分子成像技术沿着一个主题：成像神经元的应用。这一发展是面向沿着三个主轴：1-第一轴是在人类神经元激活的光学成像的研究。在这里，利用光在大脑中传播的物理特性，与其他模态（fMRI和EEG）的融合和配准，以及图像重建是提出的主要发展。目标是通过神经元成像和建模获得电生理，代谢和血液动力学过程的统一观点。2-在过去的几年里，生物医学成像朝着新的范式迈出了重要的一步。我们现在看到新的成像技术的出现，使体内分子成像。这些新的方法提供了一个微创的表征和测量的生物过程中的细胞和分子水平的活有机体。这些新方法提供了巨大的希望：早期发现疾病表现，实时评估治疗效果，特异性和选择性地将药物递送到靶组织。第二个轴与荧光光学成像有关，用于小型和中型动物的大脑和脊髓。例如，对脊髓中存在的神经元反应的研究可以为步行整合提供答案，并帮助我们更好地了解脊髓损伤。致力于了解这些问题的研究正在出现，我们相信，光学成像在这方面的理解发挥了作用。3-第三个轴是光声成像仪和小动物成像技术的发展。传感器的最新研究和进展表明，这种混合方法可以提供比标准漫射光学成像高得多的分辨率的图像。另一方面，相对于探测的组织的大小的限制表明，该方法是非常具体的问题相关。在这里，我们希望开发这种专门用于小动物神经元应用（大脑和脊髓）的分子成像（通过光谱学）技术。

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.