Gooitzen M. van Dam, MD PhD

Associate Professor of Surgery, Program Director BioOptical Imaging Center Groningen (BICG)Department of Surgery, Division of Abdominal and Surgical Oncology,University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands  

BioOptical Imaging from Preclinic to Clinic: Shedding Light on Disease  

Since several years the field of in vivo molecular imaging has expanded rapidly with major improvements in in vivo imaging of small animals like mice and rats. Dedicated small animal imaging modalities range from computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography  to optical imaging modalities. Currently, state-of-the-art hybrid imaging systems are being developed like PET/CT or MRI/optical camera systems for multimodality one-stop longitudinal imaging, providing unmatched spatiotemporal resolution up to micron levels. Optical imaging has proven to be a very efficient imaging modality in various preclinical research areas, like vascular disease, infectious diseases and cancer. At the BioOptical Imaging Center Groningen two major distinctive biooptical modalities are used: bioluminescence  imaging (BLI) and fluorescence imaging (FLI). Bioluminescence is based on the use of so-called bioluminescent reporter genes originating from species in nature like the firefly luciferase gene. This gene can be incorporated into living cells, bacteria and even small animals for research purposes and light is produced by adding a substrate (e.g. d-luciferin) to detect the expression of the luciferase gene. Several research applications will be presented, ranging from stem cell tracking to cancer monitoring, biofilm research, and disease models such as lung inflammation and vaccination studies. The other modality, fluorescent imaging, is based on the use of  fluorescent proteins like Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), or exogeneous fluorophores which emit photons upon excitation at a certain wavelength. Recently, the use of near-infrared fluorescent imaging (NIRF) has made both the preclinical and clinical application of this modality highly advantageous.  The use of NIRF in clinical practise and in particular general surgery will be presented. Various potential applications in cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and cancer will be presented by preclinical and clinical examples.