Multi-modal Imaging Cassette for Small Animal Molecular Imaging

One of the challenges inherent with in vivo small animal imaging is the co-registration of sensitive molecular imaging techniques with high resolution anatomical imaging modalities. To overcome this challenge, we designed an imaging cassette to allow multi-modal fusion via non-concurrent registration between modalities. The imaging cassette was designed to allow for rigid registration and to be compatible with all common pre-clinical imaging modalities and with an anesthesia system. The cassette was validated by providing non-concurrent registration between fluorescence molecular tomography and micro-CT (or micro-MRI).