ERC Starting Grant
Award year: 2023
Category: Scholarship / Grant
Type: ERC Starting Grant
Awarding organization: Europäischer Forschungsrat (ERC)
A non-invasive alternative for colonoscopy is multi-spectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT), a molecularly-sensitive ultrasound. This optical imaging method uses laser light to generate vibrations in the body that are detected using highly-sensitive detectors and are then put together to generate an image. In his ERC-funded project, PD Dr. Dr. Ferdinand Knieling researches how MSOT can be further developed and used for the early localization of inflammatory processes in the intestines. In conjunction with his team, he discovered that dyes given orally to patients enable dynamic visualization of the entire gastric tract. The advantage of this molecular sensitive approach is that these types of contrast agents are not absorbed by the body and are passed largely unchanged by the body.