--- title: "Optical Surgical Navigation: WMIC 2022" description: Summary of the Optical Surgical Navigation meeting at WMIC 2022. Clinical translation of fluorescent contrast agents, path to standardization with phantoms image: https://blog.quelimaging.com/hubfs/IMG_20220928_170135134_HDR16x9.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://blog.quelimaging.com/optical-surgical-navigation-wmic-2022#main-content) [![QUEL_web_logo-1](https://blog.quelimaging.com/hs-fs/hubfs/QUEL_web_logo-1.png?width=320&height=120&name=QUEL_web_logo-1.png)](https://shop.quelimaging.com/) - [Home](https://www.quelimaging.com/) - [Products](https://shop.quelimaging.com/) - [Blog](https://blog.quelimaging.com/) - [News](https://www.quelimaging.com/news) - [About](https://www.quelimaging.com/about) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Home](https://www.quelimaging.com/) - [Products](https://shop.quelimaging.com/) - [Blog](https://blog.quelimaging.com/) - [News](https://www.quelimaging.com/news) - [About](https://www.quelimaging.com/about) - [Contact us](https://share.hsforms.com/1qlwaYoKVQvGnvWZt0GNGagcxyzv) [Contact us](https://share.hsforms.com/1qlwaYoKVQvGnvWZt0GNGagcxyzv) ### View of Field Nov 1, 2022 9:30:00 AM # Optical Surgical Navigation: WMIC 2022 ![Picture of Ethan LaRochelle](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/925081a77283a399dbd145b49b251212) [Ethan LaRochelle](https://blog.quelimaging.com/author/ethan) Share: [facebook-f icon](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://blog.quelimaging.com/optical-surgical-navigation-wmic-2022) [linkedin-in icon](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.quelimaging.com/optical-surgical-navigation-wmic-2022) [Twitter icon](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://blog.quelimaging.com/optical-surgical-navigation-wmic-2022) [pinterest-p icon](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://blog.quelimaging.com/optical-surgical-navigation-wmic-2022) [envelope icon](mailto:?body=https://blog.quelimaging.com/optical-surgical-navigation-wmic-2022) The World Molecular Imaging Congress was hosted in Miami at the end of September. Each year at this conference, the World Molecular Imaging Society's Optical Surgical Navigation (OSN) interest group hosts a workshop to highlight the work being done in the field to address the OSN mission to "*advance and support optical molecular imaging education, innovation, standardization, and translation to clinical use.*" This workshop was moderated by [Jim Delikatny, PhD](https://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p15538) (University of Pennsylvania), [Summer Gibbs, PhD](https://www.ohsu.edu/people/summer-l-gibbs-phd) (Oregon Health & Science University) and [Stephan Rogalla, MD PhD](https://profiles.stanford.edu/stephan-rogalla) (Stanford Medicine). This workshop brought together the field's leading chemists, surgeons and engineers to discuss the current state of development and what is needed to advance the future of intraoperative molecular imaging. The meeting started with [Philip Low, PhD](https://www.chem.purdue.edu/people/profile/plow) (Purdue University) discussing his experience as a chemist developing tumor-targeted fluorescence dyes. It was fascinating to hear how Dr Low's team advanced the development of what is now known as OTL38, or Cytalux, starting with animal studies in 2002. This led to early in-human studies beginning in 2008, and after numerous trials the recent FDA approval for use in adults with ovarian cancer to, ["enhance the ability of surgeons to identify deadly ovarian tumors that may otherwise go undetected".](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-new-imaging-drug-help-identify-ovarian-cancer-lesions) One of the unexpected challenges during clinical studies was identifying interested surgeons and medical centers equipped with a suitable imaging system. Once appropriate sites were identified,  implementing protocols for interpreting visualization data and defining outcomes, was the next key step. Many of the current ICG-based imaging systems can visualize OTL38, but the imaging techniques are slightly different. ICG is primarily intended for vascularity or flow assessment, so small imaging artifacts are easily ignored. However, with targeted fluorescence, small artifacts may be more difficult to distinguish from small cancerous lesions, leading to a higher rate of false positives. Additional presentations were given by surgeons working on clinical studies using a variety of targeted and non-targeted fluorophores, primarily for tumor resections. While many investigations have demonstrated targeted fluorophores for enhancing intraoperative surgical guidance, intra-operative back-table imaging is a growing trend where resected sections are imaged and fluorescence is used to guide biopsy selection for pathology margin assessments. Ultimately, as has been stated by many surgeons, the only sure cure for cancer is to cut is all out, and fluorescence is a great tool to enhance a surgeon's vision. In an effort to standardize the field, [Vasilis Ntziachristos, PhD](https://www.professoren.tum.de/en/ntziachristos-vasilis) presented on his group's efforts to develop phantoms and tools. Much of the pre-commercial work developed by the QUEL Imaging co-founders was inspired by this group, and is documented in a j[oint publication in the Journal of Biomedical Optics](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7240319/). Dr. Ntziachristos' main argument was that fluorescence can be easily imaged, but how accurate is the image? This is something we, and others in the field, continue to work on. Finally, outside of the OSN working group meeting, it was very encouraging to see how some of our customers are using our products. [Hans Ingleberts](https://nlite.research.vub.be/hans-ingelberts)gave a presentation about the [fluorescence lifetime imaging system](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6985592631548329984?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6985592631548329984%29) his group is developing at Vrije University in Brussels. They have been using our targets during system development, and presented a demonstration video using our [vessel phantoms](https://shop.quelimaging.com/product/set-of-4-vessel-phantoms-icg-equivalent/). As always, we're open to discuss your applications and how we can help. Have a question? [Reach out and setup a call!](https://meetings.hubspot.com/ethan-larochelle)   [imageguidedsurgery](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/imageguidedsurgery), [standardization](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/standardization), [conferences](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/conferences), [OTL38](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/otl38) ## Related posts [![QDot800 Phantom made by Gorpas and Ntziachristos. Images by LaRochelle on pre-clinical FGS system (2016)](https://blog.quelimaging.com/hs-fs/hubfs/QDotPhantom_Solaris_Dartmouth_2016.jpg?height=200&name=QDotPhantom_Solaris_Dartmouth_2016.jpg)](https://blog.quelimaging.com/performance-evaluation-for-fgs-systems-background) [standardization](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/standardization) ## [Performance Evaluation for FGS Systems: Background](https://blog.quelimaging.com/performance-evaluation-for-fgs-systems-background) ![Picture of Ethan LaRochelle](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/925081a77283a399dbd145b49b251212) [Ethan LaRochelle](https://blog.quelimaging.com/author/ethan) Jun 22, 2023 10:47:45 AM A preprint providing guidelines for performance evaluations of fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS)... [Read more](https://blog.quelimaging.com/performance-evaluation-for-fgs-systems-background) [![Alberto Ruiz, PhD (CTO & co-founder, QUEL Imaging)](https://blog.quelimaging.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AlbertoRuiz.gif?height=200&name=AlbertoRuiz.gif)](https://blog.quelimaging.com/2025-11-phantoms-in-fgs) [fluorescenceimaging](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/fluorescenceimaging), [standardization](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/standardization), [concepts](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/concepts) ## [Dive Into Fluorescence-Guided Surgery: Highlights From OPTICA's Optical Phantom Webinar Series](https://blog.quelimaging.com/2025-11-phantoms-in-fgs) ![Picture of The QUEL Team](https://blog.quelimaging.com/hs-fs/hubfs/QUEL_Q.png?width=50&name=QUEL_Q.png) [The QUEL Team](https://blog.quelimaging.com/author/quel) Nov 26, 2025 7:40:32 AM Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) continues to shape the future of precision medicine, and... [Read more](https://blog.quelimaging.com/2025-11-phantoms-in-fgs) [![Use of Phantoms for common applications](https://blog.quelimaging.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PhantomsOverview.png?height=200&name=PhantomsOverview.png)](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tissue-optical-phantoms-essential-tools-for-advancing-fgs) [concepts](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tag/concepts) ## [Tissue Optical Phantoms: Essential Tools for Advancing FGS](https://blog.quelimaging.com/tissue-optical-phantoms-essential-tools-for-advancing-fgs) ![Picture of Ethan LaRochelle](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/925081a77283a399dbd145b49b251212) [Ethan LaRochelle](https://blog.quelimaging.com/author/ethan) Nov 12, 2024 3:30:37 PM Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) gives surgeons enhanced precision by illuminating specific... 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Main St. Suite 142 White River Junction, VT, USA Copyright © 2026, QUEL Imaging ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ethan LaRochelle", "url" : "https://blog.quelimaging.com/author/ethan" }, "dateModified" : "2023-02-20T18:46:18.618Z", "datePublished" : "2022-11-01T13:30:00.000Z", "headline" : "Optical Surgical Navigation: WMIC 2022", "image" : [ "https://blog.quelimaging.com/hubfs/IMG_20220928_170135134_HDR16x9.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.quelimaging.com/optical-surgical-navigation-wmic-2022", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.quelimaging.com/hubfs/QUEL_Q.png" }, "name" : "QUEL Imaging" } } ```