A New Probe for Imaging Live Tissue
An important step in diagnosing and treating disease is medical imaging
– being able to actually see what is going on inside tissues and
complex organs inside the body. In recent decades, imaging techniques
have had a profound impact on our knowledge of the human body,
resulting in early diagnosis, and more localised and less invasive
treatments, saving many lives in the process.
Two modern imaging techniques are optical coherence tomography and
fluorescence imaging. Optical coherence tomography provides structural
three-dimensional images of the tissues under investigation, and
fluorescence imaging gives information about what they are actually
doing.
Dr Frédérique Vanholsbeeck from The University of
Auckland has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant, to integrate the
images from these two technologies for the first time. The Fast-Start
programme is an initiative to give emerging researchers an opportunity
to explore an innovative idea, developing their capabilities and
helping them establish their research career.
Dr Vanholsbeeck will create a new imaging probe that will use both
optical coherence tomography and fluorescence imaging, together in a
single instrument. This will provide her with simultaneous structural
and functional information, offering revolutionary new insights into
the microscopic physiological processes occurring in complex organs,
such as the heart.
In addition to the development of the probe, the research project will
involve collaboration with a European hospital where experiments are in
progress involving the recovery of heart tissue damaged by heart
attacks. The probe will be used to study the recovery process in
detail. Other potential applications of this technology range from
novel surgical procedures, to minimally invasive biopsies.
Total Funding: $140,000 Fast-Start
Researchers: Dr Frédérique
Vanholsbeeck, Physics Department, The University of Auckland, Auckland.
Associates: Dr Gaetan Van Simaeys, Erasmus University
Hospital, Belgium
