ESRF revolutionizes imaging of human organs

When it comes to imaging human organs, ESRF’s new EBS accelerator is much more sensitive and offers far higher resolution than even the best medical imagers. Proof-of-concept testing was recently completed by an international team led by University College London and ESRF. The results were impressive enough to secure $1 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The researchers used the accelerator to image the lungs of Covid-19 patients in 3D down to the smallest capillaries involved in alveolar gas exchange. In work on other organs*, extremely-high-resolution images, including pictures of the brain where even neurons are visible, were generated. With the EBS imager, a single technique can image organs at all scales, from the anatomical to the cellular. The researchers are now setting their sights on imaging the entire human body by 2024.

3D images of a Covid-19 patient’s lungs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhPWCR7bBeI

Contact: paul.tafforeau@esrf.fr

*Made possible by a partnership with the Anatomy Laboratory of the French Alps (LADAF-UGA)

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