Welcome to the ERC Synergy Grant SmartX website

The SmartX project has been awarded with an ERC Synergy Grant from the renowned European Research Council, focusing on groundbreaking future technology: developing ultra-detailed, low-radiation X-ray imaging

The SmartX project is researching more detailed imaging procedures in order to diagnose lung diseases better and earlier. The focus is on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Conventional X-rays and CT scans are often inadequate for the early detection of COPD and are associated with high radiation doses. The aim is to develop a new type of detector for the dark-field X-ray procedure that requires 50 percent less radiation dose compared to the already low-radiation procedure. An X-ray detector is the counterpart to the radiation source and produces the X-ray image. While conventional X-rays are based on the attenuation of the X-ray light, the dark-field X-ray developed at TUM uses the so-called small-angle scattering of the X-ray light. This allows additional information to be obtained about the nature of the microstructure of the lung tissue.

SmartX is led by Franz Pfeiffer, Professor of Biomedical Physics and Director of the Munich Institute of Biomedical Engineering at TUM, together with José M. Benlloch Baviera, Professor at the CSIC in Valencia, Edoardo Charbon, Professor at the EPF de Lausanne, and Daniela Pfeiffer, Professor of Radiology at TUM.