FAU own research funding: EFI / IZKF / EAM ...
Acronym: ADVENDO-LIFE
Start date : 01.01.2014
End date : 31.12.2015
The identification of specific tissue and organ diseases, in particular tumours and inflammation, at an earliest possible stage, is one of the most challenging tasks in modern medicine to provide an adequate personalized and minimally invasive therapy. The specific and highly resolved visualization of diseased cells and tissue components requires the development of novel optical technologies at the edge of optical resolution to reveal structures that would be otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Laser applications already are capable today to endoscopically visualize tumours, e.g. of the gastro-intestinal tract. However, those techniques are still limited by their specificity and additionally require the use of external labels to mark pathological processes. Multiphoton excitation of specific marker molecules within the tissue can circumvent the need for such dyes. The central goal of the ADVENDO-LIFE project is the miniaturization of state-of-the-art multiphoton imaging into a novel generation of optical endoscopes that will be suitable to visualize diseased individual cells in tissues and tissue architecture in vivo. This will be first attempted in animal models and later translated into clinical practice. To achieve this goal, our multidisciplinary project team, consisting of laser physicists, optical engineers, biotechnologists and physicians will develop and validate a suitable prototype of a multiphoton-laser-endoscope. The image information resulting from this technology will be the grounds to build a morphometrical database of ‚Ultrastructure in Diseases‘ as a novel diagnostic tool for clinicians in early diagnosis and monitoring of, e.g., tumours and chronic inflammatory diseases.