By Charles Carter, 19/09/22
Innovators from UCL and European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF) have developed a new 3D X-ray technique for scanning intact organs in unprecedented detail.
The team hope the new approach will improve the understanding of health and disease by enabling analysis of organ damage at the macro and sub-cellular level, side by side.
How does it work?
The novel technique involves firing very powerful X-rays – 10 trillion times brighter than X-ray machines found in hospitals – at the brain, or other donor organ, from different angles.
A computer combines the patterns of X-ray absorption by different tissues into a 3D image – Computerised Tomography (CT).
Using more powerful X-rays, means minute differences in absorption can be detected producing sub-cellular resolution 100 times that of hospital CT scans. The new method is called Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT).
The powerful X-rays are produced by the ESRF synchrotron particle accelerator, in Grenoble, France.
The facility uses magnets to accelerate electrons around a ring. When the electrons are forced to change direction to keep in circular orbit they emit a spray of X-rays, directed to ‘beamlines’ at a number of places around the ring.
The donor brain and sensing equipment is placed at one of the ‘beamlines’ at the synchrotron.
Tangent box (X-rays -> Ray Charles): Ray Charles’ biggest hit single “I Can’t Stop Loving You” spent five weeks at No. 1 in 1962. (Hmm…OK, but why is this in the middle of the article? Tangential thinking is essential for creativity and innovation, and Superinnovators promote it!)
What are the benefits?
To analyse organ tissue at sub-cellular or micron-level – 1/70th of a human hair width – you have the option of dissecting the organ, but in the process you destroy the macro structures.
The new scanning method developed by the UCL/ESRF team enables analysis at the same level of granularity as dissection throughout the organ, as well as a hierarchy of lower resolutions to explore larger structures side by side.
The team think this flexibility will help unlock deeper understanding of organ health and disease.
Questions for you. Comment below
- First thought that comes into your head?
- Pros and cons according to you?
- Other applications of this approach?
- What could this be combined with?
Links
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-021-01317-x
Excellent initiative.
Innovations for better future