Our Services

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

MRI is used to study a wide range of diseases in patients, from neurological and psychiatric disorders to cancer and vascular disease. Additionally, MRI imaging is performed on both large and small live animals to investigate disease-related functional and structural changes. Applications include angiography, diffusion tensor, functional, perfusion and spectroscopic imaging. MRI supports high resolution imaging virtually anywhere in the body. Instruments in the CBIC include: Siemens 3.0 Tesla PRISMA MRI with 64 high bandwidth receivers providing fast parallel image acquisition with a 80 mT/m gradient amplitude; GE Discovery 750 MRI with 32 high bandwidth receivers and a 50 mT/m gradient amplitude (oth scanners have a 200 T/m/s slew rate and a 60 cm inner bore diameter); Bruker BioSpec 70/30 USR 7.0 Tesla Small Animal MRI with a 200 mT/m gradient amplitude, a 640 mT/m/s slew rate and a 20 cm inner bore diameter (in-house built RF coils provide additional signal and localization compared with standard imaging coils).

Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT)

Instruments in the CBIC combine sophisticated computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) to produce images that simultaneously provide anatomic and metabolic information. MicroPET is available for small animal imaging studies. PET can be used to scan the entire body or selected organs. PET precisely measures physiologic function, detects metabolic changes in tissue, displays blood flow, and tracks alterations in biochemical processes. PET can help physicians evaluate patients for coronary artery bypass or angioplasty procedures, diagnose psychiatric and neurological diseases, assess head trauma and movement disorders, and help diagnose and stage tumor malignancies.

Cyclotron / Radiochemistry

A medical cyclotron (Ebco 19 MeV Dual Beam Cyclotron) is available for production of radiotracers and radiochemistry equipment is available for ligand synthesis. The cyclotron produces various positron-emitting radiolabeled pharmaceutical drugs that are designed and engineered to complement clinical molecular targets. The preparation of these unique drugs requires a source of radionuclide (such as 11C or 18F) and the tools for subsequent synthesis of the drug incorporating the radionuclide. The cyclotron produces 19.2 MeV protons and 9.5 MeV deuterons in two separate beam lines.

Optical Imaging

The Ami HTX system from Spectral Instruments is a powerful and versatile small animal imaging system for preclinical research that includes multispectral fluorescence, luminescence, radioisotopic and high resolution X-ray imaging in one system. The IVIS SpectrumCT enables simultaneous molecular and anatomical longitudinal studies, providing researchers with essential insights into complex biological systems in small animal models.

High Resolution Ultrasound

The VisualSonics Vevo 3100 is located in a vivarium and provides noninvasive in vivo measurement of anatomical structures, cardiac motion and blood flow. Features include transducers with 40 µm, 50 µm, and 75 µm resolution, 20 mm field of view, and image-guided needle injection.

Image Visualization and Image Analysis

Available image analysis software includes ImageJ (NIH). Functional MRI (fMRI) analysis may be performed using AFNI or SPM. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) may be processed using the Siemens Syngo workstation, DTI Studio or TrackVis. PET pharmacokinetic analysis is performed using PMOD software with multiple toolboxes. Advanced applications programming is performed in MATLAB, IDL and ImageJ routines. Data processing is performed on PC, Mac, and Linux based systems. Dedicated analysis machines include a Linux workstation with an NVIDIA Tesla K20C, 5GB, Graphics Processing Unit containing 2,496 processor cores for parallel analysis. Online data storage is maintained on a secure 3.2 Pb partition on a WCM ITS research storage system.