QUANTITATIVE NUCLEAR IMAGING IN BIOLOGY

Used initially and extensively for medical diagnosis, nuclear imaging has been progressively extended to other applications like molecular g enetics, neurosciences and surgical aids. This review article covers n ew types of imaging apparatus resulting from this diversification. Far from being exhaustive, we limit ourselves to the three applications c ited above, in which our research group has focused its interest. In a n extensive first part, we describe three types of detectors dedicated to the three complementary areas of research in genetics at the molec ular level: in situ hybridization, gene cartography and DNA sequencing . In addition, we discuss the current limits of these methods and the efforts that we propose to progress further. Then, after recalling som e general aspects of in vivo micro-imaging, we present our new technic al strategy to investigate in vivo cerebral mechanisms in rodents. Fin ally, we describe our current development of mini-cameras for assistin g surgeons during operations.