  Omni-tomography is enabled by interior tomography that has been developed
over the past five years. By omni-tomography, we envision that the next stage
of biomedical imaging will be the grand fusion of many tomographic modalities
into a single gantry (all in one) for simultaneous data acquisition of numerous
complementary features (all at once). This integration has great synergistic
potential for development of systems biology, personalized and preventive
medicine, because many physiological processes are dynamic and complicated, and
must be observed promptly, comprehensively, sensitively, specifically, and
non-invasively. In this perspective, we first present the background for and
power of omni-tomography, then discuss its important applications in vulnerable
plaque characterization and intratumor heterogeneity evaluation, review its
enabling theory and technology, explain for the first time the feasibility of
the CT-MRI scanner as an example, and finally suggest exciting research
opportunities.
