The time has come for prime-time Optoacoustics

Speaker:  Vasilis Ntziachristos, Professor of Technical University of Munich, Helmholtz Munich

Time:       14:00, Mar. 20^th

Location: 1C-101, SIST

Host:        Prof. Wuwei Ren

Abstract:

Optical imaging is unequivocally a most versatile and widely used visualization modality in the life sciences. Yet it has been significantly limited by photon scattering, which complicates the visualization of tissue beyond a few hundred microns. For the past few years, there has been an emergence of powerful new optoacoustic imaging methods that offer high resolution imaging beyond the penetration limits of microscopic methods. The talk discusses progress in multi-spectral opto-acoustic tomography (MSOT) and mesoscopy (MSOM) that bring unprecedented optical imaging performance in visualizing anatomical, physiological and molecular biomarkers. Advances in light technology, detection methods and algorithms allow now for highly-performing visualization in biology and medicine through several millimetres to centimetres of tissue and real-time imaging. The talk demonstrates implementations in the time and frequency domain, showcase how it is possible to accurately solve fluence and spectral coloring issues for yielding quantitative measurements of tissue oxygenation and hypoxia and demonstrate quantitative in-vivo measurements of inflammation, metabolism, angiogenesis in label free mode.

Bio:

Vasilis Ntziachristos is a biomedical engineer, scientist, and inventor internationally recognized for pioneering advances in biomedical imaging, particularly fluorescence and optoacoustic (photoacoustic) technologies for medical diagnostics and therapy guidance. He studied electrical engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. After serving as Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Bio-Optics and Molecular Imaging at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, he moved to Germany in 2007 to become Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Director of the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging at Helmholtz Munich. Prof. Ntziachristos’ research focuses on developing non-invasive imaging methods that enable visualization of molecular and physiological processes in living cells and tissues, enhancing discovery, early disease detection and treatment monitoring. He is the inventor of key technologies such as multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) and raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM), now widely used in biomedical research and clinical studies.  He has spun-off several companies that commercialize these technologies worldwide. He is also the founding editor of the journal Photoacoustics and an ardent advocate of bioengineering as the translational engine bridging biological discovery to patient benefit. For this volume of work, he has received numerous prestigious awards and honors, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the World Molecular Imaging Society Gold Medal, and election to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.