Advancing biological imaging with multi-spectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT)

Multi-spectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) is an imaging method that can resolve fluorochromes and other reporter molecules with high sensitivity and specificity deep inside live animals and tissues. The method can penetrate for several millimeters to centimeters in tissues and offers resolutions in the 30 - 100 micron range. We discuss advances with technical implementation and in-vivo imaging applications ranging from mesoscopic imaging of drosophila and adult zebrafish to imaging various cellular functions in mice. MSOT comes with significant potential to shift the paradigm of biological imaging and become a method of choice in basic and drug discovery and in several clinical applications.