Learning objectives

Knowledge of how light propagation occurs in materials, in particular in biological tissues, to understand how preclinical and clinical investigations can be carried out using the optical imaging technique.
Understand the operating principles of magnetic resonance imaging (MR).
Understanding of some advanced MR imaging methods with related applications.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Knowledge of mathematics and physics at high school level

Program

Prof. Boschi's Module
Part 1: Description of light transport in biological tissues, with particular attention to absorption and scattering processes and the Lambert-Beer equation. Light emission processes and image acquisition. In particular, fluorescence imaging and some preclinical applications, and bioluminescence imaging and some experimental investigations used in oncology. Description of optical imaging tools: technical equipment and image acquisition parameters.
Part 2: Emerging imaging techniques: radioluminescence and Cerenkov imaging. Imaging in the preclinical field and first attempts in humans. Other applications in food and vegetable monitoring, chlorophyll imaging.

Dr. Bontempi's Module.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques have been continuously refined and widely adopted for the characterization of the central nervous system. Various acquisition and analysis methods have been developed; In particular, diffusion-weighted MRI and myelin water imaging (MWI) have been extensively investigated for assessing nervous tissue in both healthy and pathological conditions. This course, after an introduction to MR principles and imaging methods, will present some applications of these techniques. The final 3 hours of this seminar will consist of a hands-on session on the 7T MRI scanner available at the Centro Piattaforme Tecnologiche (CPT) facility.

Didactic methods

The lessons take place in presence. Questions from students on the topics addressed are encouraged for a more fruitful interaction.

Learning assessment procedures

NA

Assessment

NA

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

NA

Scheduled Lessons