Photoacoustic Imaging in Biology and Medicine

Photoacoustic Imaging (PAI) is becoming a major tool for preclinical studies owing to its unique property of combining aspects of optical and ultrasound imaging. Its potential for in-vitro and in-vivo imaging has been demonstrated both in tomographic setups and in photoacoustic microscopy. The proposed research network is represented by an interdisciplinary consortium of experts in photoacoustic imaging in Austria where research in physics and mathematics is heavily driven by input from biology and medicine. The main goal is to steer the technique towards practical applicability and routine for biomedical applications. Thus the NFN aims at developing and characterizing novel physical devices for preclinical inspections based on modern mathematical tools and inversion techniques. Moreover, PAI is considered a new screening technique and novel fields of biomedical applications are identified. Challenging questions in medical applications related to early cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment are of particular interest in the proposed research network, as well as investigations of disease progression in thoroughly controlled small animal studies. This network combines all research areas currently considered to play a significant role in photoacoustics, namely biology, mathematics, medicine, and physics. We believe that such a NFN network, consisting of Austrian research groups with a longstanding research background in the relevant topics, can be competitive. Mutually benefiting from each other we hope to reach a new conceptual and technological level in the research area of biomedical applications in PAI.