Final Report Summary - MOLECULAR IMAGING (Integrated technologies for in-vivo molecular imaging)
The main scientific and technological objective of this project was the development, assessment and application of tomographic and microscopic technologies combined with novel fluorescent probes that will allow in vivo imaging of important biological processes in subcellular, cellular, organ, embryo and whole animal levels. To achieve this integrating and unifying view, multidisciplinary research and technology expertise in biology, bioorganic chemistry, engineering, theoretical physics and biomedical optics were combined.
A number of achievements were made during the lifecycle of this project. One achievement was the creation of a whole toolkit for in vivo labelling was created, including improved fluorescent proteins of different colours, photoactivatable and phototoxic fluorescent proteins, and fluorescent protein-based intracellular sensors. These probes can be used in a variety of applications to address fundamental problems in cell and molecular biology and in biomedical research. In addition, interesting basic aspects of biochemistry of fluorescent proteins were studied during this work.
Furthermore, the project has completed the evaluation of the new red fluorescing proteins that will further enhance the ability to image deep inside the body with higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. The project has used the system to image angiogenesis in hypoxic regions such as tumours and follow the fluctuations of oxygenation associated with such regions. The direct imaging of this phenomenon could prove very important in detecting cancer stage and phenotype since benign and malignant tumours behave in a different way. Applying the FMT method to immunology studies we have been able to image T cell seeding in peripheral lymphoid organs during early development of transgenic mouse neonates and successfully follow their numbers. A very important achievement is the development of automated software for FMT acquisition and analysis, which will prove invaluable for the use of the methodology from end users such as biologists. The new software is based on a graphical user interface making it thus very user friendly and can be run in any personal computer as a standalone application. It simplifies the steps needed for both the acquisition and most importantly the analysis and representation of the data.
A number of achievements were made during the lifecycle of this project. One achievement was the creation of a whole toolkit for in vivo labelling was created, including improved fluorescent proteins of different colours, photoactivatable and phototoxic fluorescent proteins, and fluorescent protein-based intracellular sensors. These probes can be used in a variety of applications to address fundamental problems in cell and molecular biology and in biomedical research. In addition, interesting basic aspects of biochemistry of fluorescent proteins were studied during this work.
Furthermore, the project has completed the evaluation of the new red fluorescing proteins that will further enhance the ability to image deep inside the body with higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. The project has used the system to image angiogenesis in hypoxic regions such as tumours and follow the fluctuations of oxygenation associated with such regions. The direct imaging of this phenomenon could prove very important in detecting cancer stage and phenotype since benign and malignant tumours behave in a different way. Applying the FMT method to immunology studies we have been able to image T cell seeding in peripheral lymphoid organs during early development of transgenic mouse neonates and successfully follow their numbers. A very important achievement is the development of automated software for FMT acquisition and analysis, which will prove invaluable for the use of the methodology from end users such as biologists. The new software is based on a graphical user interface making it thus very user friendly and can be run in any personal computer as a standalone application. It simplifies the steps needed for both the acquisition and most importantly the analysis and representation of the data.