Optoacoustic micro-tomography at 100 volumes per second

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Imaging
• Optoacoustic Imaging
• Microscopy

Background:

• Optical microscopy is crucial for biological discovery but limited in speed and depth due to light scattering.
• Observing dynamic biological processes requires high temporal resolution, which traditional scanning microscopy struggles to achieve in 3D.
• Light scattering in biological tissues restricts penetration depth and field of view for optical techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a fast optoacoustic micro-tomography (OMT) approach for overcoming limitations of conventional optical microscopy.
• To enable high-speed, deep-tissue 3D imaging of biological dynamics.
• To resolve optical absorption acoustically, bypassing scattering limitations.

Main Methods:

• Developed a fast optoacoustic micro-tomography (OMT) system.
• Utilized a high-density hemispherical ultrasound array for simultaneous 3D data acquisition.
• Achieved detection bandwidth beyond 25 MHz.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated fast 3D imaging of freely-swimming zebrafish larvae.
• Achieved 3D imaging speeds of 100 volumes per second.
• Obtained isotropic spatial resolution near large cell dimensions over a field of view > 50 mm³.
• OMT resolves optical absorption acoustically using unfocused light.

Conclusions:

• OMT offers a powerful approach for multi-scale functional and molecular imaging.
• The technique bypasses light scattering penetration barriers in deep tissues.
• Fast OMT enables unprecedented visualization of biological dynamics in vivo.