Transforming brain surgery by advancing functional-guided neuronavigational imaging

In recent years, through the advancement of imaging technologies (such as MRI, PET, CT, among others) clinical localisation of lesions of the central nervous system (CNS) pre-surgery has made possible for neurosurgeons to plan and navigate away from functional brain locations when removing tumours. However, neuronavigation in the surgical management of brain tumours remains a significant challenge, due to the inability to maintain accurate spatial information of lesioned and non-lesioned locations intraoperatively. To answer this challenge, we have put together a team of engineers, physicists, data scientists and neurosurgeons to develop an innovative, all-optical intraoperative imaging system based on (i) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) for rapid, multi wavelength spectral acquisition, and (ii) artificial intelligence (AI) for image reconstruction and molecular fingerprint recognition. Our intraoperative HSI system (HyperProbe) will (1) map, monitor and quantify biomolecules of interest; (2) be handheld and user-friendly; (3) apply AI-based methods for the reconstruction of spectral images, the analysis of spatio-spectral data and the development and quantification of novel biomarkers. We will validate the developed capacity in phantoms, in vivo against gold standard modalities in neuronavigational imaging, and finally provide proof-of principle during brain tumour surgery. HyperProbe aims at providing functional and structural information on biomarkers of interest that is currently missing during neuro-oncological interventions.