Students from Saint Gabriel's College - London collaborated with Orbyts Fellow Álvaro José González Grajales from UCL Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering and The Francis Crick Institute on a project using X-ray computed tomography (CT). The goal was to non-invasively visualise both hard and soft tissues within an osteochondral sample from a pig's knee joint.

Traditional 2D X-ray images have limitations, often losing information when trying to distinguish between different tissue types. To overcome this, the students used a CT scanner, which takes multiple projections from various angles and combines them computationally to create a detailed 3D volume.

Using a Nikon XTH 225 CT scanner, the student researchers acquired over 1600 X-ray projections to reconstruct a high-quality 3D volume of the sample. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in image quality and contrast, allowing for clear visualisation of the hard bone as a bright white, porous structure and the soft cartilage as a distinct light grey area.

In conclusion, this project effectively demonstrated the power of S-ray CT for imaging biological samples with diverse components. The successful 3D reconstruction confirmed the technique's value for visualising both hard and soft tissues, highlighting its potential for a wide range of medical and biological applications!