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Our technology

OptoSonics' patented optical imaging technology — Thermoacoustic Computed Tomography (TCT) — has the potential to revolutionize optical imaging in small animals and humans. TCT achieves high sensitivity and fine detail in three dimensions using infrared light. The TCT images that OptoSonics is known for are fully three-dimensional, and offer significant improvements in image detail and sensitivity compared to competing technologies.

TCT has numerous benefits to disease researchers and pharmaceutical companies. TCT provides unique and valuable information about the physiology of tumors, local changes in microvascularization and other disease mechanisms. In the future, TCT may be used in the diagnosis and treatment of many life-threatening diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases.

For drug manufacturers, TCT offers insight into the effectiveness of therapeutic drugs. Researchers have a valuable new tool to help answer questions about whether drugs are getting to the selected target and if so, are they having the desired effects. Because TCT may be used repetitively on the same animal, the course of therapeutic treatment is evaluated with less variability and ambiguity. TCT will help pharmaceutical companies reduce the cost and time to develop new drugs.

TCT applications
(Figure provided courtesy of Keith Stantz, from Stantz KM, Liu B, Shaffer M, Li JJ, Mendonca M, Chin-Sinex H, Cao M. Effects of radiation on NF-κB and hypoxia in breast xenograft model. World Molecular Imaging Congress. Nice, France. Sept. 10-13, 2008.)