by
Keri Stephens, Contributing Reporter | December 22, 2025
MARS Microlab scanner, a photon-counting CT system for clinical research.
Czech Republic-based Charles University has installed MARS Bioimaging’s color spectral CT scanner at its Centre for Advanced Preclinical Imaging (CAPI) within the First Faculty of Medicine, a multimodal small-animal research hub serving academic and commercial teams across Europe.
The system expands CAPI’s
in vivo imaging capabilities, enabling researchers to visualize biological processes in full color and distinguish up to five materials per scan, including metals, calcium, lipids, arteries, bone, and blood. This multi-material resolution provides more precise insight into complex physiological interactions and disease models.
MARS Bioimaging Group COO Mark Figgitt says the scanner delivers high spectral resolution and multi-material analysis in a single acquisition, complementing CAPI’s existing imaging tools. Unlike conventional black-and-white CT, MARS scanners produce high-resolution 3D color images without contrast agents, improving material differentiation for cancer research, orthopedics, and new imaging probe development.
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Founder and CTO Anthony Butler adds that the system can measure multiple tagged agents simultaneously, allowing researchers to label cells, biochemical processes, or implanted biomaterials within a single specimen. This capability opens new ways to study physiology and pathology and may inform future human imaging as spectral CT evolves.
CAPI’s open-access model gives European researchers a platform to develop and validate spectral CT methods ahead of broader clinical adoption. Department head Luděk Šefc, CSc, notes the center uses CERN’s Medipix detectors and complements existing
in vivo systems. EU funding from the Johannes Amos Comenius program enabled the acquisition.
Beyond internal research, CAPI tests new imaging probes and technologies and provides access to teams across Europe. As part of Czech-BioImaging and Euro-BioImaging consortia, the center has explored Timepix3 detectors for CT, SPECT, and PET applications.
“We’re collaborating with MARS Bioimaging on new applications for color CT,” Šefc says. “Our open-access model allows scientific teams across Europe to use this technology, broadening its application in preclinical imaging and supporting methods that may translate to human studies.”
