Speaker
Description
Within the ALBA Life Sciences Section, current efforts focus on establishing a multi-scale, multi-technique imaging strategy to map biological systems across hierarchical levels—from cells to tissues, and from tissues to whole organisms. The Fast X-ray Tomography and Radioscopy beamline (FaXToR) is central to this vision, offering a dedicated hard X-ray µCT instrument for morphological characterization at the micrometer and sub-micrometer scales within large biological volumes. Operating at 8–70 keV with high photon flux and flexible detection configurations, FaXToR supports both static and time-resolved imaging to track dynamic physiological processes, biomaterial interactions, and pathological micro-architecture. In addition to propagation-based phase-contrast imaging, the beamline incorporates differential phase and dark-field imaging via Talbot grating interferometry. These modalities significantly enhance sensitivity in weakly absorbing soft tissues, enabling the non-destructive visualization of micro- and nano-structural features crucial for preclinical and fundamental medical research. By utilizing the beamline's multi-scale detection system, researchers can seamlessly bridge organ-level morphology with sub-micron structural detail. This presentation will highlight FaXToR’s emerging bioimaging capabilities, correlating them with the broader multimodal X-ray approaches in the ALBA portfolio. Furthermore, we will demonstrate how combining complementary phase-contrast modalities provides richer insights into tissue organization and function. Looking ahead, planned upgrades toward a 4th-generation synchrotron and expanded phase-contrast techniques will further strengthen ALBA's life-science imaging pipeline, unlocking unprecedented opportunities for dynamic, high-sensitivity biological characterization.