Seminars Archive

Biomedical Imaging at the Canadian Light Source

Abstract
The Canadian Light Source is a third generation synchrotron facility located on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This source presently hosts 15 beamlines (soon to be 22) with a wide variety of techniques using light from the far infrared to hard x-rays. The Biomedical Imaging and Therapy (BMIT – pronounced beam-it) beamlines are designed to apply the unique properties of synchrotron light to biomedical research with a variety of modalities and wide range of subject sizes. BMIT uses a number of imaging modalities that are phase-based; In-Line Phase Contrast Imaging, Analyzer Based / Diffraction Enhanced Imaging and along with emerging methods of Grating Interferometry Imaging and Coded Aperture Imaging. Absorption based methods include K-Edge Subtraction which is an element specific form of imaging an elements such as iodine or barium. BMIT is capable of a large range of subject sizes which extends from millimeter sized objects such as pieces of bone to the ability to handle a large horse or cow – dogs are the largest subjects to date. Positioning systems have been purpose-built specifically for BMIT which allow for this range of subject sizes. A wide range of biomedical research is presently being carried out on BMIT, primarily on the bend magnet beamline at this time, which extends from micro-tomography of bone, prostate cancer, ovarian anatomy, gene expression studies, microstructure of bread, dinosaur skin imaging, and fuel cell research to name a few. There is a strong instrumentation development program to advance a number of imaging modalities in support of the biomedical programs. These include x-ray optics for K-Edge Subtraction Imaging, Diffraction Enhanced Imaging, multiple energy imaging, beam expanding optics and development of new imaging modalities (Grating Interferometry and Coded Aperture Imaging) to add to the complement of methods that BMIT can apply to biomedical problems. The presentation will include an overview of the synchrotron source, the beamlines, and examples of research that has or can be done.