Macroscale fluorescence lifetime imaging with novel time-gated camera complemented with high-resolution color image registration

Macroscale fluorescence lifetime (FLT) imaging is emerging as a promising tool to improve tumor margin delineation and enhance contrast between tumor and healthy tissue during fluorescence-guided surgery. We have been developing the tauCAM, a custom-built time-gated CMOS camera with a high quantum efficiency (QE) in NIR (46%) and a resolution of 128x128 pixels, specifically for this application. The images obtained from the tauCAM are overlaid on high-resolution color images acquired with a dedicated color camera. We demonstrate the capabilities of our camera by performing in vivo studies on subcutaneous mice tumor models administered with nanobody- and antibody-based NIR tumor-targeted fluorescent contrast agents. The results indicate that FLT imaging enhances the contrast between tumor and healthy tissue.