Spectral imaging

摘要

Apparatus and methods are provided for the imaging of structures in deep tissue within biological specimens, using spectral imaging to provide highly sensitive detection. By acquiring data that provides a plurality of images of the sample with different spectral weightings, and subsequent spectral analysis, light emission from a target compound is separated from autofluorescence in the sample. With the autofluorescence reduced or eliminated, an improved measurement of the target compound is obtained.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
illuminating a sample to cause the sample to emit radiation, wherein the sample comprises deep tissue supporting a target compound and one or more additional components, and wherein the emitted radiation comprises emission from the target compound and emission from the one or more additional components; spectrally filtering the emitted radiation with each of a plurality of different spectral weighting functions; storing an image of the spectrally filtered radiation for each of the spectral weighting functions; and processing the stored images to construct a deep tissue image of the sample comprising a signal contribution from the target compound and a signal contribution from each of the one or more additional components so that in the deep tissue image, the signal contributions from each of the one or more additional components are reduced relative to the signal contribution from the target compound, wherein processing the stored images comprises constructing the deep tissue image based on the stored images and an emission spectrum for the target compound.