In cooperation with the Clinic for Radiotherapy and Radiation Oncology at the University Medical Center Eppendorf (UKE), the LEXI project is being carried out as subproject 1 of the interdisciplinary Garduiertenkolleg on the topic of "Innovative Technologies in Cancer Diagnostics and Therapy".

Motivation

New small animal irradiation platforms have been developed rapidly in the last few years. These systems enable high-precision irradiation in addition to imaging techniques such as micro-CT imaging and bioluminescence. Physical phantoms are needed to ensure quality assurance procedures at these facilities. For this additive manufacturing offers the possibility of producing phantoms with a high degree of geometric freedom in a cost-effective, modular and specific manner.

Objective

The goal of this project is to develop and deploy anatomical small animal phantoms with tumor specimens inserted so that they are available in large numbers and continuously throughout the course of treatment to generate standardized datasets. For this purpose, an additively manufactured mouse phantom will be further developed to integrate living cells and vital tumor material.

Research Method

The project will investigate materials and procedures that allow for the integration of biological tumor tissue into a physical small animal phantom. Through this development, a gain in knowledge regarding diagnostics and the course of therapy of tumor diseases can be achieved using phantom-based replicas, thus avoiding, in the future, additional animal experiments and, at the same time, providing for realistic physical interactions around the biological specimen.