The Live Animal Imaging Core uses the IVIS Lumina II imaging system, which allows monitoring of cellular activity (quantitative) through bioluminescent or fluorescent reporters in live mice or rats. This system can identify tumor development in studies aimed at dissecting the molecular genetics of several types of cancer using mouse or rat models.

The imaging system allows the use of a smaller cohort of animals for the research as animals do not need to be sacrificed to ascertain the presence of tumor lesions. The system offers noninvasive longitudinal monitoring of the following:

Disease progression (e.g., tumor progression and metastasis)
Tumor response and recurrence
Cell trafficking and gene expression patterns in living animals
Drug metabolism genes due to either the parent molecule or its metabolites
A potentially greater use of this imaging system is in translational research involving therapeutic trials using animal models for disease. It is hypothesized that compounds with demonstrated efficacy on tumors developed in situ in animal models will have a higher success rate after translation to the clinic, as these scenarios will more faithfully recapitulate the conditions under which human tumors grow.

The ability to image tumors in situ rapidly and with high sensitivity using the IVIS imaging system, and the correlation between tumor size and the amount of emitted light, indicate that the IVIS imaging system provides a mechanism to rapidly evaluate potential therapeutic compounds.

The imaging system can be likewise applied to any other disease state in which disease burden can be quantified (e.g. the number of bacteria in the systemic circulation). Other important applications include the following:

Infectious disease
Inflammation
Gene therapy
Stem cell biology
Cardiovascular disease
Immunology
Transplantation biology