OCT for 3D cell culture visualization

3D cell cultures are already being used in a variety of different applications in which their unique characteristics are very beneficial, but of course the higher complexity and informational value of 3D cell cultures comes with its own set of challenges. One of the key challenges being, that not the same analysis techniques can be used for 3D cell cultures as are established for 2D cell cultures. Especially the visualization of the 3D cell cultures is complex, time consuming and not ready for an upscaling of the 3D cell culture research. The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT sees the optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a key technology to this key challenge of 3D cell cultures and thinks that OCT thereby can support 3D cell cultures in becoming a more realistic alternative to 2D cell cultures and in some cases even animal testing.