Spinal health gets a boost from scientific software

A paper published in the latest edition of Nature describes a new X-ray imaging technique that enables scientists to see how the tiny collagen fibres inside spinal discs behave when the disc is put under pressure.

Their findings could help scientists understand why spinal discs deteriorate as we age and why particular areas are vulnerable to damage.

The research, led by a team from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and University College London (UCL), was made possible by using an innovative software package known as interactive Digital Volume Correlation (iDVC),

The code for iDVC was developed by STFC Scientific Computing with financial support from the Collaborative Computational Project in Tomographic Imaging (CCPi), and from STFC through the Ada Lovelace Centre (ALC) and the Computational Science Centre for Research Communities (CoSeC). The STFC team worked closely with Professor Brian Bay from Oregon State University, who pioneered digital volume correlation.

This software helped the QMUL/UCL research team turn complex 3D X-ray images into precise measurements of how the collagen fibres in the spine’s discs respond when put under pressure.

The discs act like shock absorbers and help the spine to move while sharing the load placed on the disc from actions such as standing, walking or carrying weight. Until now, scientists have found it difficult to see how the collagen structures work together when a spinal disc is compressed.

The researchers developed a technique called TomoSAXS, which combines two types of X-ray imaging: phase-contrast CT which shows the larger collagen fibres and how they move; and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) which gives information about the smaller collagen ‘fibrils’ inside the fibres.

Connecting it with the iDVC software made an entirely new type of analysis possible.

Dr Danica Sugic, a computational scientist in the Computed Tomography and Imaging group at STFC Scientific Computing, said, “Tissue and fibre deformations under compression are extremely intricate and difficult to track manually. The iDVC software uniquely provides very precise measurements and 3D rendering of how thousands of distinct points move within the disc.”

The iDVC software turns images into measurements. It compared the 3D X-ray images of the spinal disc before and after it was compressed. This allowed the researchers to calculate where parts of the tissue had moved and changed shape. It also enabled them to track the movement of individual fibres, rather than simply measuring an average change across the whole disc.

Dr Edoardo Pasca, Head of the Computed Tomography and Imaging group, said, “This work demonstrates the importance of long-term funding for software development, such as this enabled by CoSeC and ALC. Our computational capability in this project was a key element in revealing how the spine’s shock-absorbing discs behave.  In the long-term it will help to achieve the goal of improving lives, which is one of the UK’s research and innovation priorities.”

Notes:

CCPi (https://www.ccpi.ac.uk/) is coordinated by Edoardo Pasca’s group in STFC Scientific Computing and funded by UK Research and Innovation Digital Research Infrastructure through STFC’s Computational Science Centre for Research Communities (CoSeC).  https://www.cosec.ac.uk/

The iDVC software was developed by CCPi with support from STFC Scientific Computing via CoSeC and the Ada Lovelace Centre.  https://www.adalovelacecentre.ac.uk/

The iDVC software is open source and can be accessed at: https://tomographicimaging.github.io/iDVC/.

More information:

The research paper ‘Multimodal X-ray imaging reveals hierarchical fibre mechanics’, Newham et al, is published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11148-5

The research team was led by Queen Mary University of London and University College London, in collaboration with ESRF – the European Synchrotron – and the UK’s Diamond Light Source.