Time-domain diffuse optical tomography for 3D non-contact intrinsic and fluorescence molecular imaging

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I propose a research program on the development of biomedical optical imaging instrumentation for 3D visualization inside small intact laboratory animals. This program comprises the development of: 1) an imaging system (scanner) that uses laser light to illuminate the animal and optical detection techniques to measure the light after its propagation inside the animal, 2) algorithms that use the data obtained from the optical measurements made exclusively outside the animal, to reconstruct 3D images of the interior of the animal with a technique called diffuse optical tomography (DOT). This technique allows visualizing physiological phenomena related to tissue absorption, such as blood oxygenation, or via the injection of so-called fluorescent biomarkers, phenomena that take place at the cellular, or even at the molecular level inside the animal. Such visualization, so-called molecular imaging, is useful to the biologist or medical researcher who tries to understand diseases, such as cancer, that ultimately all take place at the molecular level. Such a scanner can thus provide a key to more efficient treatments of diseases. It is thus also interesting to the researcher in pharmacology who will be able to assess the efficacy of the new drugs he develops to treat diseases. Similar technologies, forming the realm of medical imaging, are invaluable tools every day to diagnose diseases. Additionally, the research program proposes to add X-ray imaging technology to the scanner so that optical functional or molecular images can be overlaid on anatomic X-ray images. Such bimodal technology will allow better visualizing and more easily localize biomolecular events of interest. The scanner to be developed will be part of the world class small animal preclinical imaging infrastructure at the Centre d'Imagerie Moléculaire de Sherbrooke (CIMS) comprising nuclear and magnetic resonance imaging. CIMS is a key player in Canada and internationally in the development of small animal preclinical imaging scanners. An important outcome of the proposed research will be to train highly qualified personnel in this emerging and exciting new field of multimodal molecular imaging which promises to have a great impact on the health and wealth of Canadians.