JUM@P '13: Joint Users' Meeting at PSI 2013

Unraveling biological and physical processes with 3D imaging and quantification

18 Sept 2013, 12:15

2h

WSLA - Foyer (Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland)

Board: 1

poster Poster session I and lunch

Speaker

Mr Kevin Mader (Paul Scherrer Institute)

Description

3D tomography has enabled the probing and imaging of biological processes at previously unachievable temporal and spatial resolutions[1]. At these scales, many types of samples have tens of thousands of substructures with complicated patterns of spatial positioning, orientation, and shape. An examination of these structures provides insight into the underlying processes which drive growth, development, and mechanical behavior. In bone tissues the network of small cells called osteocytes, reflect the development course of the bone with more and less organized regions corresponding to newer and older bone respectively [2]. Furthermore as the primary mechanosensors of the bone their spatial positioning and distribution is a proxy for the mechanical sensitivity of the bone tissue. On a finer scale, small processes running in tunnels called canaliculi connect the osteocytes together and enable communication, nutrition, and waste removal. The connectivity of the network, while studied on the scale of dozens of cells, is crucial for understanding pathologies in bone which are known to occur when the intercellular signaling is suppressed. Recent improvements in flux and image quality have allowed even these nanometer scale structures to be visualized in the context of the entire bone. At the TOMCAT beamline, we have developed a scalable framework [3] for characterizing these complicated structures and reliably condensing millions of voxels into useful quantitative results. Utilizing the cluster computing resources at PSI, the tools developed, while not yet real-time, enable rapid data exploration and preliminary analysis within the timeframe of a beamtime. The framework is easily adaptable to a wide variety of sample types and analyses ranging from egg-shells to ice-cream and even rheological characterizations of foam and volcanic rock. [1] Mokso R, Marone F, Stampanoni M. Real-Time Tomography at the Swiss Light Source. AIP Conf. Proc. SRI2009, 2009. [2] Mader K., Schneider P., Müller R., Stampanoni M. 2013. A Quantitative Framework for the 3D Characterization of the Osteocyte Lacunar System, Bone (Accepted) [3] Mader K, Mokso R, Raufaste C. Quantitative 3D Characterization of Cellular Materials: Segmentation and Morphology of Foam. Colloids and Surfaces A: … 2012;415:230–238. doi:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2012.09.007