I am planning to use Y-90 and Cu-64 for some radiolabeling experiments and is it possible to detect the Cerenkov signals from these solutions in a Chemidoc system?
My purpose is to obtain preliminary results for screening purposes and then we will be sending out samples to another facility that is equipped with IVIS imagers.
The CCD used in the Chemidoc should detect the photons. There is a slight difference in the sensitivity of CCD detectors use to due the level of cooling, but since the type of noise being suppressed by cooling is not the dominate noise type, any CCD camera can measure small photon counts.
I agree with William Thoma that it should be able to pick up the Cherenkov signal. You may need longer exposure (5 min) and/or pixel binning. Make sure to remove any optical filters as the Cherenkov signal is broadband.
Guillem's answer is much better than mine. He mentions important considerations when using a product for something slightly different than its original intended use.
Thank you very much William Thoma and Guillem Pratx for the valuable advice.
I was able to image vials containing about 200 and 500 uCi Cu-64 with about 120 sec exposure (image attached). Obviously the quality is nothing when compared to IVIS but works pretty well for me since IVIS is not available.
Do you, by any chance, know any software that can help me quantify the signals - like measuring ROI values or setting up calibration scale on the images? Image J is not working and the native BioRad software is not meant to do such stuff.
I am able to open the file you attached in ImageJ and I get values for the pixels. Both vials have a maximum value of 255,000,000 (red). Obviously, the vial in the left has less total signal. I believe you saturated the detector.
You might want to update, re-install your ImageJ.
Cheers,
Bill
Nisarg Soni the images look very nice! It's good to know you can use ChemiDoc for Cherenkov imaging.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Chemistry
- Nanotechnology
- Nanostructures
- Thin Films