X-Ray Bio-Imaging
Research Projects
Hard x-ray bio imaging
We invented the liquid-metal-jet electron-impact hard x-ray source. The spatial coherence and power of this source enables phase-contrast imaging to be performed with unprecedented spatial resolution. Applications include micro-angiography, small-animal tomography and soft-tissue imaging.
Soft x-ray microscopy
We developed the first sub-visible-resolution laboratory water-window microscope. It is based on pioneering work in liquid-jet laser-plasma sources and in-house zone-plate optics. Applications include 2D and 3D nanoimaging of cellular and other wet samples samples.
Instrument
- Exciscope Polaris
Polaris is an X-ray micro-tomography system, consisted of powerful metal-jet X-ray source, large sample stage, and fast CMOS camera and suitable for X-ray phase-contrast imaging.
Exciscope was founded by previous group members.
Read more about Polaris .
Example of publications: W. Twengström et al., “Can laboratory x-ray virtual histology provide intraoperative 3D tumor resection margin assessment?”, Journal of Medical Imaging (2022). DOI: 10.1117/1.JMI.9.3.031503 .
- Preclinical XRF
The preclinical X‑ray fluorescence computed tomography instrument enables noninvasive, longitudinal in‑vivo imaging of mice, providing few‑hundred‑micrometer spatial resolution maps of nanoparticle biodistribution while simultaneously acquiring conventional absorption CT at low radiation dose.
The multilayer Montel mirror is centered at ~24 keV (FWHM ≈ 1.4 keV), selecting the In Kα line at 24.1 keV from the liquid‑metal‑jet source to form a semi‑monochromatic pencil beam. The system is optimized for molybdenum, detecting its Kα fluorescence at 17.4 keV (Mo K‑edge ≈ 20 keV). More generally, with this ~24 keV excitation it can detect elements whose K‑edges are below ~24 keV (i.e., suitable mid‑Z elements).
Example of publications: K. Shaker et al., "Longitudinal In-Vivo X-Ray Fluorescence Computed Tomography With Molybdenum Nanoparticles," in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 39, no. 12, pp. 3910-3919, Dec. 2020, doi: 10.1109/TMI.2020.3007165.
- D2 Test Beamline
There is a test beamline with flexibiliy to develop new protocols or imaging modalities, equipped with a liquid-metal-jet D2 source, flat panel detector, and different stages. The field of view can be up to 23x29 cm2 without stitching.
Contact
The group leader is Prof. Hans Hertz. The group members are listed in People .
Visiting address
AlbaNova
Roslagstullsbacken 21
Stockholm
Delivery address
KTH
NAME, Bio-Opto-Nano Physics
Hannes Alfvéns Väg 11
SE-114 19 Stockholm, Sweden
Publications
You can find some listed publications here . The full publication list can be found in Google Scholar .