Anatomical to Cellular Synchrotron Imaging of the Whole Human Body

X-ray tomography provides high resolution over a limited field of view, requiring millimeter-sized tissue biopsies to achieve cellular resolution. This team will develop hierarchical phase-contrast tomography (HiP-CT) techniques that decouple resolution from specimen size and enable micron scale imaging anywhere in whole human bodies, resolving subcellular structures through hard and soft tissue.

To achieve this transformation in X-ray tomography technology, this project will realize significant breakthroughs in critical areas, including X-ray optics, detectors and hierarchical correlative image reconstruction algorithms. This work will be scaled to clinical imaging, using AI to correlate the project’s cellular mapping to clinical diagnostic techniques. By combining and adapting these techniques to whole human body imaging, the team will provide insight at multiple anatomical levels, from organs to cells, in health and disease.