Image analysis for assessing molecular activity changes in time-dependent geometries

In vivo fluorescence molecular imaging and tomography has facilitated monitoring of genomics and proteomics over time and on the same animal. A highly important issue, however, has been the robust registration of animals imaged at different time points to obtain accurate description of activity and location. This paper presents a method for aligning temporal data of small animals based on surface anatomical features and improving the accuracy of monitoring fluorophore distribution. The method can account for differences in the positioning and compression of small animals and can be extended to three-dimensional as well as to other imaging modalities.