Large Animal Facility for Imaging and Image-guided Therapies at MSU

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ABSTRACT Precision health is an emerging paradigm in healthcare that focuses on early detection and molecular determinants of disease. Michigan State University (MSU) has launched a University-wide initiative to bring the principles of precision health into its healthcare systems. The success of this initiative depends, in large part, on our ability to obtain relevant data from predictive pre-clinical animal models and effective translational research. Advances in molecularly targeted diagnostic and therapeutic agents, the cornerstones of precision medicine, require reliable testing in informative animal models of human biology. Small laboratory animals (rodents) commonly used in biomedical research are often not suitable for studying pathologies where physiology, human markers, physical size, gestation length, lifespan, and other human-like features are key contributors to disease. Use of larger animal species for research, including dogs, pigs and sheep, can overcome many of these hurdles. It is widely accepted that in vivo imaging plays a pivotal role in nearly all areas of biomedical research and clinical practice, and the importance of its role will only increase with the development of new agents and therapies. However, imaging data obtained in small animal imaging systems cannot always be directly translated to studies in humans. Clearly, studying large animal models using clinical scanners would produce data that are closest to what we expect in humans, and would better inform translational studies. Further, the ability to study comparative diseases that occur spontaneously in domesticated species, as part of clinical studies of client- owned animals, will add further to translational relevance and data outcomes. For these reasons and to advance the clinical relevance of animal models, we are requesting funds to develop a multi-species large animal imaging facility at MSU. This facility will be equipped with a state-of-the-art high-end clinical imaging system (PET/MRI, mMR Biograph, Siemens) that would serve MSU’s diverse biomedical scientific and clinical communities. Researchers will use this facility for studies of large research animals, and client-owned companion animals to develop imaging and image-guided therapy approaches with focus on human pathologies linked to significant mortality rates (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes). This multidisciplinary facility will also support ongoing clinical trials in human subjects and serve as a training ground for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral trainees from 6 colleges, 12 departments and 7 programs. performing research on a full spectrum of human and animal disease models. This new biomedical imaging facility, in combination with human and veterinary expertise at MSU, creates an extraordinary opportunity to perform pre-clinical, clinical and translational research using clinical imaging equipment. These capabilities will promote high-level collaborations between MSU and investigators at regional and national institutions to ultimately champion and advance a premiere program in precision health and comparative medicine, benefiting both human and animal health in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.