Integrated Center for In Vivo Microscopy
From BTRR
Overview
The goals of the Integrated Center for In Vivo Microscopy are to develop technologies for small animal imaging and to apply these techniques to important biomedical questions in a broad range of fields such as cancer, toxicology, tumor biology, embryology, histology, neurobiology, stroke, models of pulmonary and heart disease, drug discovery, and molecular biology. The center's integrated team of faculty, staff, and graduate students span a range of disciplines from the biological sciences, engineering, computer science, and physics. Only through integration—understanding the biology, choosing appropriate biomarkers, matching these to the right imaging strategy, and exploiting high-end computational resources—is the highest quality of scientific imaging achieved.
Current Research
Technical developments continue in magnetic resonance (MR) microscopy, micro-positron emission tomography, micro-computed tomography (CT), and micro X-ray imaging. The recent additions of ultrasound and optical methods have expanded the bridge into molecular imaging. Work in hyperpolarized gas continues with the installation of a new specialized high-power laser to increase the polarization efficiency of both 3He and 129Xenon. Novel new encoding strategies have been developed to complement the hyperpolarized gas studies, permitting volumetric radial acquisition with effective echo times <200 micro second. The development of non-uniform Fourier encoding is providing increased dynamic range and precision in reconstruction. Three-dimensional Fourier encoding has been expanded to accommodate imaging arrays as large as 4096 x 4096 x 8192.
