查看文章

The use of small animal models in basic and preclinical sciences constitutes an integral part of testing new pharmaceutical agents prior to commercial translation to clinical practice. Whole‐body small animal imaging is a particularly elegant and cost‐effective experimental platform for the timely validation and commercialization of novel agents from the bench to the bedside. Biomedical imaging is now listed along with genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics as an integral part of biological and medical sciences. Miniaturized versions of clinical diagnostic modalities, including but not limited to microcomputed tomography, micromagnetic resonance tomography, microsingle‐photon‐emission tomography, micropositron‐emission tomography, optical imaging, digital angiography, and ultrasound, have all greatly improved our investigative abilities to longitudinally study various experimental models of human disease …