Ultrasensitive multiplexed optical imaging methods: the true meaning of shedding light in the dark.

The field of biomedical research and in particular cancer research is developing at an incredible pace, where there has been a strong focus on the improvement of non-invasive imaging methods for preclinical small animal studies. While various imaging methods have advanced, most groundbreaking results have been achieved in the field of optical imaging. This low-cost, easy touse and highthroughput method has resulted in the most versatile and sensitive method to date, enabling up to single cells to be visualized non-invasively in live animals. Some issues remain in the inability to discern different populations and the inability of detecting small cell samples in the presence of larger cell masses. Here, we aim to continue on our recent, world-first findings, where we combined genetic engineering and optical imaging to visualize metastases at their earliestonset in the presence of primary tumors simultaneously. We will also use similar approaches to detect and quantify cell subpopulations (e.g. cancer stem cells) oraffected host cells that enable a kinetic follow-up of any entities takenup by other target cells (e.g. drug delivery systems, extracellular vesicles).These methods would enable researchers and companies to perform high-throughput screening tests on a significantly reduced number of animals and hereby play a major role in target validation and compound identification for in-depth analysis.

Keywords:preclinical optical imaging, Advanced 3D bioluminescence, functional imaging, oncology

Disciplines:Cancer diagnosis, Medical biotechnology diagnostics