Developments on the Photon Imager



New! Download the brochures of the different modules:

The 4 view module      The MacroLens module


Molecular Imaging, especially for optical modalities, is a fast evolving field. The philosophy of the Photon Imager is to help you keep on track with the latest advances, by developping add-on modules to the system instead of changing completely its design. Therefore, to take advantage of our latest developments and get state-of-the-art technology, you only need to upgrade your system, not to start a new and long procedure to purchase yet another additional machine. You save time and money, since you upgrade both the system and your procedures, instead of starting again from scratch.
You are shown here some of the recently developped or soon to be add-on modules for the Photon Imager.

In Actio Imaging

Conventional optical imaging instruments are too often limited to the quantification of a still signal, revealing the expression of a molecule at a given time only. Biological phenomena are always dynamic, and a single observation at a unique time point usually gives an incomplete information and can often lead to misinterpretation. With such 'photography'-like observations, the dynamics of 'fast' phenomena remains completely unaccessible. Before In Actio, in vivo molecular imaging with non invasive optical modalities had the following limitations:

  • Imaging the animal during motion was not possible. Monitoring calcium activity in the brain during sleep and wake cycles or observing a bioluminescent signal in a contracting muscle could not be done non invasively in vivo.
  • Anesthesia could be a time consuming step and a limit to the capacity of the imaging systems to have a high throughput
  • Anesthesia could introduce a bias, disturb the physiology of the pathology model, or affect the signal expression (cf Anesthesia and other considerations for in vivo imaging of small animals, Hildebrandt et al, ILAR 2008).

Being able to image non anesthetized, non sedated animals opens new possibilities that could not be imagined before. The In Actio module records simultaneously the bioluminescence signal and a video of the animal under infra red lightning for co-registration. Hence, the Photon Imager extends its imaging capabilities from a dynamic signal on an anesthetized animal, to a dynamic signal on a dynamic animal. The In Actio modules gathers the following advantages, for protocols when there is no need for acquisition of the ventral or lateral sides of the animal:

  • Physiological relevance: observe physiological or pathological phenomena free from disturbance.
  • Reduced animal preparation: Anesthesia is not required any more.
  • High throughput: Several animals can be imaged simultaneously, the procedure being quicker without anesthesia

Examples of acquisition are shown below with freely moving mice and fish.





In actio imaging of a mouse with a bioluminescence expressing subcutaneous tumor on its back.
Courtesy of R. Boisgard, CEA/SHFJ





Freely moving mouse with subcutaneous luminescent nanoparticules, imaged with a temporal resolution of 20 ms.








Fish with persistent luminescence nanoparticules.
Applications of In Actio imaging
In Actio imaging has the possibility to offer unprecedented flexibility in many different fields; one must keep in mind, however, that it is limited, for awake rodents, as acquisition of the back of the animal.
The applications below are listed as examples:
  • Molecular approaches to behavioral studies. Ex: calcium flux during sleep and wake cycles
  • Functional physiological studies, with calcium imaging during muscular contraction
  • Biodistribution of therapeutic molecules at the subcutaneous tumor site in awake animals

Some of these applications are thoroughly described in the publication of Rogers et al: Non-invasive in vivo imaging of calcium signaling in mice, PLoS ONE, 2(10): e974 (2007) (link)

Distinct mitochondrial Ca2+ responses in newborn mice are linked to different behavioral states. From Rogers et al: Non-invasive in vivo imaging of calcium signaling in mice, PLoS ONE, 2(10): e974 (2007) (link)


MacroLens

The MacroLens module is currently developped by Biospace Lab to open a new door to the world of bioluminescence microscopy and to build the missing link between macroscopic and microscopic acquisitions for fluorescence and bioluminescence acquisitions.

Correlate whole-body and microscopic quantifications

The MacroLens module will give you the possibility to acquire and quantify the expression of a signal at different scales with the same instrument. This is the guaranty of a better accuracy and improved repeatability. What's more, wether you need to sacrifice the animal or not, the MacroLens module provides you with a reliable quantification at a mesoscale level before, if needed, the long and painful step of tissue section preparation for microscopy.

Bioluminescence microscopy

The observation of high resolution bioluminescent signals in living animals was so far limited to inventive researchers who developped bench systems with cooled CCDs. Biospace Lab introduces the first stand alone system for in vivo bioluminescence microscopy with the Photon Imager's MacroLens. It provides researchers with the following advantages:

  • Unrivalled sensitivity. The performance of the intensified camera gives the PI a better sensitivity than cooled CCD with no trade-off on the time resolution
  • Easy installation and calibration. The Photon Imager with the MacroLens module is installed and calibrated on site by Biospace Lb skilled staff
  • Macro to micro level for BLI and FLI. Enjoy the flexibility with the possibility to use fluorescence and bioluminescence at a macroscopic scale, organ level and microscopic level
  • Stand alone system. You take advantage of all the performances of the Photon Imager, including the analysis software M3 Vision for easy and precise quantification of your real time acquisitions

Track and focus

Many applications, like metastases studies, cell migrations or stem cell implantations, require information at different levels of detail. The MacroLens module aims at providing a solution to this so-far unanswered challenge:

  • Track your cells in the entire animal noninvasively: the macroscopic level
  • Assess growth or migration spreading on a given spot at the level of the organ
  • Focus on groups of cells with the microscopic level



Calcium imaging in drosophila




(C)


A transgenic drosophila was imaged with the “Macro2Micro” add-on during a pulse of nicotine which induces a calcium wave in the fly brain. (Objective: 20x; field of view:0.9 mm) (A) Different areas of the brain are activated sequentially. (B) Time profile analysis of the different areas during the calcium wave. (C) Movie of nicotine induced calcium response in the drosophila mushroom bodies

Courtesy of Dr. J.R. Martin, Cellular and molecular neurobiology departement, Alfred Fressard Neurobiology Institute, CNRS, Gif sur Yvette, France.



Malaria parasite migration in mosquito



MacroLens fluorescence acquisition of a mosquito expressing DsRed in its salivary glands, infected with GFP expressing malaria.
The malaria sporozoites first home in the insect thorax before migrating to the salivary glands of the mosquito. Such a migration is thought to be facilitated by specific chemo-attractants.
The acquisition clearly shows the GFP expression of the parasite in the insect's thorax and the DsRed expressing salivary glands. This double labeled image was overlayed with a white light picture of the mosquito, and the movie shows the two pictures overlayed with different transparency levels. Click on the image to get a larger view of the signal image.

Courtesy of Dr. Shigeto Yoshida, Department of infection and immunity, Jichi Medical school, Saimata, Japan.

4 view

The 4 View module helps increasing the analysis accuracy and relevance of your acquisitions. It offers a precise quantification by providing you not only one but several views of your animal (dorsal, ventral, and lateral views) simultaneously and in real time. The 4 View module presents the following advantages:
  • No need to change the position of your animal, even if signal sources are located on different sides. You get all the information in a single acquisition
  • Take advantage of the unique features of the Photon Imager, with its real time capabilities, applied to this new acquisition mode. Kinetics are available for any view, any ROI or any combination of ROIs and views.
  • Switch from bioluminescent acquisitions to fluorescence acquisitions with a single click

The 4 View is the first step towards 3D reconstruction and quantification of your signal, with reliable results that can truly be significant for your experiments! A software add-on is under development for 3D reconstruction and tomorgaphy from multiview acquisitions.

M3 Vision Analysis Software
Combine efficiency and precision for quantification, kinetics analysis and export

Biospace Lab has developped a new software for the analysis of images of its molecular imaging instruments, The philosophy of the new software relies on a standard mode for easy, fast yet precise routine analyses, and on an advanced mode, with a large number of options and highly specific processes. The software includes the following advantages:


  • Save time with automated and semi automated processes
  • Quantify easily, rapidly, and precisely: new magic wands, new quantification report, kinetic curves, spatial profiles, etc.
  • Export in a single click all your data for illustration or further processing
  • Find instantly any acquisition file with the user-friendly search engine, similar to Google desktop in its design
M3 Vision will help you perform faster and more precise analysis, and will ease the comparison of the numerous images of your experiments.


Combine advantages

Thanks to this philosophy of modules, Biospace Lab is in a position to offer you a system that can be upgraded in order to combine the advantages of upcoming developments, instead of having to replace the system for any new major feature. To look at the Photon Imager unique key features, browse the Photon Imager product page.