Visualising living airways: A new x-ray technique to assess Cystic Fibrosis treatments.

A sensitive new x-ray imaging technique will be established to provide biomedical researchers with the ability to look inside the living body and observe micron-scale biological processes that are essentially invisible with existing non-invasive imaging methods.
The new technique uses a reference intensity pattern, created by a grid, to determine how the sample changes the phase of incident x-rays, instead of simply looking at the sample's 'shadow'. The technique will be applied in an ongoing collaboration with Australian medical researchers to non-invasively monitor the airway surface in developing a cure for the Cystic Fibrosis fatal airway disease.
Key steps will be taken towards realising this technique as a clinical tool.