Development of nanoparticle in vivo labeling contrast probes for tissue clearing 3D microscopy compatible with multi-modal imaging in fluorescence, dark field, MRI, CT and electron microscopy modalities.

High resolution 3D microscopy in combination with tissue clearing techniques such as CLARITY, iDISCO, CUBIC is a rapidly growing area of biomedical research. It also has high potential to replace traditional 2D histology to become a method of choice for the analysis of tissue biopsy samples used in diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. However, currently there is a limited availability of contrast agents that can label organs, biological tissues, and cells in a live animal and are compatible with these techniques. To bridge this gap the Mitacs Fellow will work in collaboration with Luna Nanotech scientists to develop novel nanoparticle based probes that can label specific organs, tissues, structures, and cells in vivo. The outcome of this work will be a commercial line of labeling probes which are fully compatible with the tissue clearing techniques. Furthermore, unique properties of nanoparticles will make these probes highly versatile, allowing the high resolution fluorescence and dark field 3D microscopy to be combined with other whole body and tissue specific imaging modalities, such as magnetic particle imaging, microCT, and electron microscopy. This research will position Luna Nanotech as one of the leaders in the field of 3D tissue clearing microscopy and multi-modal imaging.

Faculty Supervisor:

Datong Song

Student:

Trevor Janes

Partner:

Luna Nanotech

Discipline:

Chemistry

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

University of Toronto