Non-invasive ex-vivo/in-vivo tissue analysis platform

Cancer usually has a devastating diagnosis and is going to remain a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the upcoming decades worldwide. Research is needed for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved in cancer-related pathologies to find better treatment possibilities. The gold-standard for cancer diagnosis and to investigate related pathologies is ex-vivo tissue analysis, so called histology. The procedure involves multiple steps and still takes up to couple of minutes. Here it would be beneficial to have a real-time ex-vivo tissue analysis and diagnosis tool. Also for pre-clinical cancer studies using animal models or cellular structures a new, inexpensive, multi-modal 3D imaging approach would be beneficial. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) or microscopy based OCT (OCM) is an optical imaging technique which provides axial resolutions in the micrometer range over 1-2 millimeters in depth. OCM data is 3D, and these morphological data sets are recorded in real time based only on the intrinsic contrast of the various tissue types. The project will be conducted by Lichtenegger, PhD. She recently finished her PhD in Medical Physics at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna under the supervision of Prof. Baumann. In the first 14 months of the project, she will be working in the lab of Prof. Yasuno in the Computational Optics Group at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. In this research project a multimodal OCM platform will be established and will enable multi-contrast measurements of both ex-vivo tissue samples and in-vivo cell cultures and animal models. OCM offers a rather inexpensive method to retrieve the tissue morphology in cellular resolution. The technique is non-destructive; no slicing or labeling is needed to gain tissue specific contrast in comparison to conventional histology. The proposed platform aims to unite and expand existing OCM technologies. The goal is to find a sensitive method to differentiate tumorous and healthy tissue in pre-clinical cancer related research. The project is divided into six work-packages, which include the data acquisition, the post-processing, the data visualization and analysis, data validation and the establishment of new imaging protocols. During her PhD in Austria she developed a multimodal OCM setup operating in the visible wavelength region. In her returning phase to Austria she will improve this setup based on the knowledge gained at the University of Tsukuba. This project will improve and advance ex-vivo and in-vivo pre-clinical tissue analysis. The platform will offer a novel, fast, relatively inexpensive and highly advanced method for real-time, non-destructive tissue imaging.

Cancer usually has a devastating diagnosis and will remain a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide in the coming decades. To find better treatment options, research is needed for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved in tumor-related pathologies. The gold standard for cancer diagnosis and the study of related pathologies is ex vivo tissue analysis, known as histology. The procedure involves multiple steps and takes several minutes. Here, it would be beneficial to have a real-time ex vivo tissue analysis and diagnostic tool. Also, for preclinical cancer studies using animal models or cellular structures, a new, low-cost, multimodal three-dimensional (3D) imaging approach would be beneficial. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) or microscopy-based OCT (OCM) is an optical imaging technique that provides micron-scale axial resolutions over an imaging range of 1-2 millimeters. OCM datasets are 3D, and these morphological representations are recorded in real time based only on the inherent contrast of the different tissue types. The project has been conducted by Dr. Lichtenegger. She recently completed her PhD in Medical Physics at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna under the supervision of Prof. Baumann. For 17 months of the project, she has been working in Prof. Yasuno's lab in the Computational Optics Group at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. In her research project, a multimodal OCM platform has been developed to measure ex vivo tissue samples as well as in vivo cell cultures and in vivo animal models. OCM provides a fairly inexpensive method to determine tissue morphology at a cellular resolution. The technique is non-destructive; compared to conventional histology, no additional steps are required to obtain tissue-specific contrasts. The imaging setup offers a sensitive method to differentiate tumorous and healthy tissue areas in preclinical cancer research. A focus of her project was set on zebrafish-based studies. The zebrafish is an established animal model in the pre-clinical research field because of several advantages compared to commonly used rodent models. The small size, the fast maturation time and the large number of offspring enables cost-effective and high-throughput studies. Even though it is not a mammal, humans and zebrafish share a high degree of genome structure, as around 70% of human genes have at least one obvious ortholog in zebrafish. During her PhD in Austria, she has developed a multimodal OCM setup; in her return phase to Austria, she upgraded this setup based on the knowledge gained at the University of Tsukuba. In this project a novel, fast, relatively inexpensive, and highly sophisticated method for real-time nondestructive tissue imaging has been introduced to improve and advance preclinical ex vivo, in vitro and in vivo tissue analysis.