3 februari 2010
BMPI has secured two grants for in total 1.9 M€. One grant, of 400 k€ is obtained from the Foundation for Fundamental Research of Matter in the Netherlands (FOM, www.fom.nl), in their program ‘New Physical Instruments for Health Care’. The other, of 1.5 M€, is a VICI-grant obtained by Wiendelt Steenbergen. VICI is a program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO (www.nwo.nl) for personal funding.
The aim of the research is to achieve quantitative photoacoustic imaging, with an approach called ‘Sound Light’. Quantitative photoacoustic imaging means that we want to image the concentration of absorbing substances in tissues (such as oxy- and de-oxyhemoglobin, or contrast agents) in absolute terms. We want to realize this without using additional computational models, but based on measurements alone.
This research serves medical imaging, with applications in e.g. oncology using natural contrast by blood, or enhanced contrast by smart contrast agents.