Nuclear and Optical Imaging Platform

Infrastructures
Research areas
  • Physical Sciences
Contact

Unai Cossío Arrieta Email: ucossio@cicbiomagune.es Telephone no.: +34 943 00 53 21

Available for external users?
Yes
Access protocol

Contact with Platform Manager, by email external.services@cicbiomagune.es or check the services here.

Description

Molecular imaging in animal models holds significant potential in areas like neurology, oncology, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or inflammation research. It is also an essential tool for translational research and new drug development, with the rapid emergence of imaging-based biomarkers. The Nuclear Imaging platform at CIC biomaGUNE is a pre-clinical platform dedicated to in-vivo nuclear imaging in small animals (rats and mice). It offers state-of-the-art imaging resources in Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) and Computerized Tomography (CT).

The platform is equipped with a PET/CT (eXplore Vista-CT, GE Healthcare) and a MOLECUBES trimodal system composed with two β-CUBE, one γ-CUBE and one X-CUBE; gamma counting system (2470 Wizard2, PerkinElmer), and with a digital autoradiography (Beta Imager 2000, Biospace Lab) for ex vivo studies.

Services

Trimodal imaging system, PET, SPECT and CT – MOLECUBES γ, β and X-CUBES
These devices work separately thus allowing to obtain multimodal images simultaneously. It is composed of three independent modules:
•    γ-CUBE. SPECT equipment of high resolution and sensitivity that allows the obtaining of static images of full body of rats and mice.
•    β-CUBE. High-resolution, sensitivity PET equipment with a wide axial field of view of 13 cm in a bedding position, with which full-body dynamic acquisitions can be made.
•    X-CUBE. High-performance CT equipment that allows to obtain high-resolution anatomical images (50 μ m) of rats and mice in a short time.
Specific features of the system include: images of full-body mice and rats (PET, SPECT and CT); dynamic (PET) and static (PET and SPECT) studies; possibility of acquiring PET images synchronized with the heart rhythm of the cardiac animal gated imaging; possibility of acquiring CT images synchronized with the breathing of the animal respiratory gated imaging; possibility of acquiring PET images of up to four mice simultaneously; image reconstruction using the iterative 3DOSEM algorithm and scatter correction and CT image-based energy attenuation.
 

PET/CT The eXplore Vista-CT
The system provides high sensitivity functional imaging along with anatomical images within a single instrument. The 7 cm bore is suitable for mice and rats up to 400 g. Both static and dynamic studies are possible with time-uptake analysis. Specific system’s features include:
•    Computer-controlled bed movement during whole-body imaging
•    FBP and 2DOSEM reconstruction
•    Random, scatter, and CT based attenuation correction
•    Static, dynamic, whole-body, list mode, transmission, and blank imaging
 

Autoradiography Biospace Lab BetaIMAGER
It allows simultaneously acquiring data from samples labeled with multiple radioisotopes, precisely discriminating the emissions of each isotope according to the emission energy or the radioactive half-life. In a few hours you can acquire data with the same quality and resolution as with traditional autoradiography films or phosphor screens. The disintegrations are detected in real time and the visualization of the data is continuously updated during the acquisition, thus allowing an optimal adjustment of the exposure time.

Location

CIC biomaGUNE Parque tecnológico de Gipuzkoa Ed. Pº Miramón 182, 20014, San Sebastián