Intraoperative molecular imaging clinical trials: a review of 2020 conference proceedings.

Significance: Surgery is often paramount in the management of many solid organ malignancies because optimal resection is a major factor in disease-specific survival. Cancer surgery has multiple challenges including localizing small lesions, ensuring negative surgical margins around a tumor, adequately staging patients by discriminating positive lymph nodes, and identifying potential synchronous cancers. Intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI) is an emerging potential tool proposed to address these issues.

Navigating surgical fluorescence cameras using near-infrared optical tracking.

Fluorescence guidance facilitates real-time intraoperative visualization of the tissue of interest. However, due to attenuation, the application of fluorescence guidance is restricted to superficial lesions. To overcome this shortcoming, we have previously applied three-dimensional surgical navigation to position the fluorescence camera in reach of the superficial fluorescent signal.

Severe and progressive neurotransmitter release aberrations in familial hemiplegic migraine type 1 Cacna1a S218L knock-in mice.

Familial hemiplegic migraine type 1 (FHM1) is caused by mutations in the CACNA1A gene, encoding neuronal presynaptic Ca(V)2.1 (P/Q-type) Ca(2+) channels. These channels mediate neurotransmitter release at many central synapses and at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ).