VisionGate’s Proprietary Cell-CT™

The Cell-CT™ creates 3D cellular images using a technique called optical projection tomography. VisionGate is the pioneer in this field, and the U.S. Patent Office has issued the first 11 patents covering the company’s technology and its associated 3D cell image processing, automated classification capabilities and diverse applications in early cancer detection, therapy monitoring and drug discovery.

VisionGate’s innovative Cell-CT technology is breaking new ground in the field of quantitative cell analysis by virtue of its unique ability to compute the true 3D internal structure of cells based on molecular optical absorption densities. The computed 3D density structure is isotropic within a cell; meaning the resolution is equal in all three spatial dimensions. Cells are not placed on slides, but rather, they are suspended in fluid and injected through a micro-capillary tube that permits multiple viewing perspectives around 360°. VisionGate’s method of 3D imaging uses state-of-the-art radiological x-ray CT tomographic image reconstruction, while utilizing visible photons rather than x-rays. The Cell-CT platform enables the quantitative analysis of the in situ 3D distribution of targeted molecular markers, stains and other absorbing structures within a cell at sub-micron resolution in a manner that links to traditional pathology, but with the third dimension.

Most attempts to visualize cells in 3D are approximations derived through cumbersome techniques. Consequently, the 3D anatomy of the cell has been elusive. VisionGate’s Cell-CT platform allows rapid visualization of the cell’s complex 3D anatomy, and this capability will lead to many important discoveries in the hands of leading scientists.