Application of Photoacoustic and Multimodality Imaging in Biomarker Detection

PASSCODE: OIL2024

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging fills the gap of penetration and resolution between optical imaging and ultrasound imaging, allowing imaging with optical contrast at deep tissue with high resolution. Disease progress is accompanied by multiple pathological alterations of proteins, cells, tissues and the microenvironment. The need for monitoring these biomarkers motivates the development of imaging techniques to provide sensitive, specific, multidimensional and easily accessible imaging of diseases.

Driven by this need, this work developed the method using photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) and multimodality imaging system combining photoacoustic microscopy (PAM), fluorescence microscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT), to investigate the pathological alteration of diseases. We used multispectral PACT technique assisted with a hypoxia sensing probe to investigate aggressive tumors in the mouse model. We characterize a chemically engineered PA contrast agent that can target cancer cells and respond to hypoxia environments and conduct in vivo imaging with PACT to visualize tumor hypoxia. Next, we developed a multimodality imaging to investigate vasculature alteration, retinal structural change and plaque deposition in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) rodent model. We performed in vivo imaging study in both retina and brain, identified several biomarkers correlated with AD. Eventually, we extended the study and conducted a 3-month longitudinal monitoring of AD in the mouse model. These works explored the capabilities of different implementations of PA imaging in two disease models, highlighting the power of imaging technology in disease research.

Co-Chairs: Professors Xueding Wang & L. Jay Guo