SPring-8, the large synchrotron radiation facility

Language：English

Speaker：Dr. Adam Round

Affiliation：Australian Synchrotron, ANSTO

Title：The Imaging and Medical Beamline at the Australian Synchrotron: Bio, Medical, Paleontological, Geological and Material Science imaging capabilities.

Abstract：
*Adam Round¹, Anton Maksimenko¹, Amir Entezam¹, Matthew Cameron¹, Christopher J. Hall¹ and Daniel Häusermann^1
1 Australian Synchrotron, ANSTO, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia.
*roundaansto.gov.au (Corresponding author)
Keywords: X-ray Imaging, CT, Phase contrast, Biomedical, Palaeontology, Materials.

　The Imaging and Medical Beamline ^[1] (IMBL) at the Australian Synchrotron, operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), enables a broad range of biomedical and material science X-ray imaging applications. The IMBL beamline provides a large beam size (250 x 80 mm) in the IMBL satellite building (140 m from the source) with a 25–120 keV energy range and high flux (1E¹⁷ s^-1mrad^-2) from the (up to 4 Telsa) superconducting multipole wiggler ^[2]. The IMBL beamline is ideally suited (by its design) to take advantage of these parameters, facilitating rapid imaging of large animal specimens, fossils, rocks and concrete samples that cannot be easily investigated elsewhere. Propagation-based X-ray phase-contrast further enhances the beamline’s capabilities to provide visualisation using scattering and refraction effects, allowing the study of samples without strong density differences. Computed tomography (CT) is also routinely combined with phase-contrast enhancement for volumetric analysis, providing superior results when imaging low-density materials such as soft tissue (for biomedical applications). A major ongoing research program at the IMBL is the development of 3D X-ray medical imaging to improve the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer ^[3]. Major progress in this project includes characterisation of a large number of mastectomy samples (normal and cancerous), which have been scanned at clinically comparable radiation dose levels, with evaluation by expert radiologists (for both image quality and diagnostic power). Other projects include the study of lung development and injury to improve treatments; angiography to provide data-driven insights for better neonatal care; development of AI processing tools; and non-destructive investigation of fossils, mining cores and concrete samples for civil engineering studies. A range of non-imaging projects utilizing the high energy, high power X-ray beam for electronic testing and novel radiotherapy are available. The major research program in this domain is an ongoing research trial for treatment of spontaneous tumours in dogs. This program is providing impressive results for soft tissue and osteosarcomas with significant interest in expanding the scope to other tumours types in the near future. A range of projects which have successfully utilised the IMBL will be presented to provide an overview of the imaging and therapy capabilities of the beamline.

References:
1) Andrew W. Stevenson et al. J. Synchrotron Rad. (2010). 17, 75–80, doi:10.1107/S0909049509041788
2) Andrew W. Stevenson et al. J. Synchrotron Rad. (2017). 24, 110–141, doi:10.1107/S1600577516015563
3) Benedicta D. Arhatari et al. Appl. Sci. (2021), 11, 4120. doi:10.3390/app11094120