Omni-tomography: Next-generation Biomedical Imaging (original) (raw)

2012, arXiv (Cornell University)

Systems biomedicine represents one of the major efforts towards personalized and preventive medicine. Recent progresses are largely based on multi-platform and high-throughput-omics data from tissue samples and bioinformatics tools. There is a huge gap between these in vitro data and phenotypic in vivo features. We envision that futuristic research and its translation could greatly benefit from in vivo multiplatform, high-throughput and tomographic information about disease and pre-disease conditions. Inparallel to the development of novel multi-functional probes, multi-physics modeling, high-tech engineering and advanced image reconstruction present new opportunities to peek into living biological systems noninvasively without limitations in space and time. Building blocks are now either available or emerging for the birth of next-generation biomedical imaging-"Omni-tomography" (Wang, Zhang et al. 2012). CT, MRI, PET, SPECT, ultrasound are all medical imaging modalities, each of which has a well-defined role. Over the past decade, we have seen an increasing popularity of multi-modality systems, such as PET-CT and PET-MR, gaining advantages by sequential or contemporaneous data acquisition (Cherry 2009; Patton, Townsend et al. 2009; van der Hoeven, Schalij et al. 2012). However, these paired modalities impose limitations that compromise our understanding of physiological processes relative to fine details and rapid changes driven by a beating heart. With omni-tomography, more or previously non-compatible imaging modalities can be fused together for a comprehensive study of local transient phenomena.