ORCID
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1138-6976
Date of Award
Spring 5-15-2020
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Molecular imaging is a powerful tool that enables interrogation of basic molecular mechanisms, diagnosis of disease, guidance of therapeutic modalities and monitoring of treatment response. Among the various imaging modalities, optical imaging is particularly suited for preclinical molecular imaging owing to its high sensitivity, lack of exposure to ionizing radiation, low cost, portability and scalability of imaging from the microscopic to macroscopic scale. In particular, fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) provides quantitative 3D reconstructions of fluorescence distributions down to picomole quantities allowing for whole animal molecular imaging. In this work, FMT is applied to detect disease-specific molecular probes, to monitor and quantify delivery of therapeutic drugs and to understand basic mechanisms of disease, with an emphasis on imaging uptake and clearance of molecular probes in the brain.
Language
English (en)
Chair
Samuel Achilefu
Committee Members
Mark Anastasio, Dennis Callahan, Monica Shokeen, Christina Tsien,
Comments
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/465d-wd10