To celebrate UK Pride Month, the British Ecological Society journal blogs are posting a ‘Rainbow Research’ series, which aims to promote visibility of STEM researchers from the LGBTQ+ community. Each post will be connected to a theme represented by one of the colours shown in the Progress Pride flag. In this post, Daniel Trotter discusses his research on physics and computational neuroscience under the Progress Pride flag theme of ‘Transgender Pride’.
X-ray micro-computed tomography – or µCT – is a technique that uses x-rays to create high resolution cross-sections of samples. Virtual 3D models can be made from these cross-sections without destroying the original samples. Micro-CT has important applications in medical imaging and, in the biomedical field, in vivo µCT allows researchers to make virtual 3D models of the skeleton and organs of live small animals. Three-dimensional models like these could provide insight into diseases and guide the development of medicines and therapies.
In vivo µCT holds three major advantages over other methods:
It allows for repeated measurements of small live animals at different times without having to sacrifice them.
It eliminates variation among individuals.
It can reduce the number of animals required to obtain statistically meaningful data.
Methods Blog 