Msc Project Proposal "registration of a Deformable Animal Model with Multiple 2d Photographs " Contact: Boudewijn Lelieveldt

Molecular imaging offers new possibilities for pre-clinical (small animal) research, because it allows in-vivo imaging of biochemical (microscopic) processes at a macroscopic level. This means that the onset of pathological processes can be studied at an early stage, long before large-scale anatomical changes occur, and followed over time in the same animal. Nowadays a large range of small animal scanners is available (CT, MRI, PET, SPECT etc.) that enable acquisition of data of the entire animal body and thus to assess disease progression globally. This is of high interest for example in oncology research because it enables monitoring metastatic behavior of different types of cancer. Other typical molecular imaging modalities are Bioluminescence Imaging (BLI) and Fluorescence Imaging (FLI), which enable in-vivo imaging of gene expression. Both have a very high sensitivity but their spatial resolution is low, which complicates linking the signal to the corresponding anatomy. Therefore, the data is often fused with a modality that provides high anatomical detail, such as MicroCT.