As biological tissues have a complex architecture and a spatial heterogeneity, measurements made in 2D only partially reveal their full 3D morphology and interconnectivity. Indeed, conventional and even digital histology are largely unsatisfactory for spatial assessment of biological tissues, because the restricted sectioning orientation and the limited depth resolution only partially reveal their full 3D morphology, but also because they lack reproducibility on a large scale (sample destruction). In this overview, the potential and added value compared to standard 2D imaging techniques of contrast-enhanced X-ray microfocus computed tomography (CE-CT) are presented. CE-CT is a very recent development in the micro-CT imaging field and allows quantitative virtual 3D histology of both soft and mineralized tissues. This would allow getting a better understanding of the complex mechanisms behind tissue formation and regeneration, as well to better understand the effect of pathologies on tissue architecture and hence function.

Prof. Greet Kerckhofs has been recently appointed as Associate Professor at the Institute of Mechanics, Materials & Civil Engineering (UCLouvain, Belgium) running the Biomechanics Lab, and as Visiting Professor at the Dept. of Materials Engineering (KU Leuven, Belgium). She is Scientific Committee member of Prometheus, the Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering (KU Leuven). She obtained her PhD in Materials Engineering (KU Leuven) in 2009, and was a postdoc at the Université de Liège (2012-2014) and the KU Leuven (2009-2011; 2014-2017). Her present research mainly focuses on ‘Quantitative virtual 3D Histology using Contrast-Enhanced CT’. She is author of 48 peer- reviewed publications, two book chapter and more than 120 contributions to International and National Conferences. She has an h-index of 22, with over 2500 citations (Google Scholar).