VisEn Fluorescence Molecular Tomography (FMT) scanner

描述（由申请人提供）：申请资金用于购买临床前荧光分子断层扫描（FMT）成像系统，以支持H. Lee Moffitt癌症中心癌症相关研究。该仪器将被安置在莫菲特动物园内的小动物成像实验室（SAIL）内并进行操作。莫菲特是美国国立卫生研究院在佛罗里达州唯一指定的综合癌症中心，最近致力于发展世界一流的临床和临床前癌症成像能力。在佛罗里达州没有其他类似的工具存在。因此，这一文书同SAIL内的所有其他文书一样，将作为一种区域资源。6名主要用户和13名次要用户合作完成了该提案，代表了27项NIH资助的赠款，包括药物发现项目，胸部肿瘤学的SPORE赠款和物理科学肿瘤学中心赠款。这些研究人员代表了癌症中心六个研究项目中的五个，包括；药物发现，实验治疗，免疫学，分子肿瘤学和风险评估，检测和干预。这种新型仪器将使目前无法在四个不同的研究领域进行的许多研究成为可能：治疗反应评估、分子谱分析、免疫治疗中的细胞跟踪和抗体/配体/纳米剂的生物分布。对于治疗反应评估，肿瘤的荧光蛋白表达和一些市售荧光探针的生物活性可用于监测对实验性药物和治疗方案的反应。对于分子分析，新的和可用的靶向荧光探针可用于识别关键诊断和预后标志物的表达。通过将表达荧光蛋白的细胞过继转移到同源小鼠品系中，并通过多通道成像共定位到表达异种移植肿瘤的荧光蛋白，可以监测细胞跟踪。最后，可以定量评估正在开发的新型靶向分子显像剂的结合特异性、生物分布和摄取和清除的药代动力学。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to purchase a pre-clinical fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) imaging system to support cancer-related research at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. This instrument will be housed and operated within the Small Animal Imaging Laboratory, SAIL, situated within the Moffitt vivarium. The Moffitt is the only NIH-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the State of Florida, and has recently made a major commitment to developing world class clinical and preclinical cancer imaging capabilities. No other comparable instrument exists in the State of Florida. Thus, this instrument, as all other instruments within SAIL, will be intended to serve as a regional resource. Six major users and 13 minor users have collaborated on this proposal, representing 27 NIH funded grants, including a Program Project in Drug Discovery, a SPORE grant in Thoracic Oncology and a Physical Science Oncology Center grant. These investigators represent five of six research programs within the Cancer Center, including; Drug Discovery, Experimental Therapeutics, Immunology, Molecular Oncology and Risk Assessment, Detection & Intervention. This novel instrumentation will make possible a number of currently inaccessible studies in four distinct areas of research: therapy response assessment, molecular profiling, cell tracking in immunotherapy, and antibody/ligand/nanoagent biodistribution. For therapy response assessment, tumor expression of fluorescent protein expression and the bioactivity of a number of commercially available fluorescent probes can be used to monitor response to experimental drugs and therapeutic regimens. For molecular profiling, novel and available targeted fluorescent probes may be used to identify the expression of key diagnostic and prognostic markers. Cell tracking can be monitored by adoptive transfer of cells engineered to express fluorescent protein into congenic mouse strains and imaging co-localization to fluorescent protein expressing xenograft tumors using multiple channels. Finally, binding specificity, biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of uptake and clearance can be quantitatively assessed for novel targeted molecular imaging agents under development. Public Health Relevance: Funds are requested to purchase a pre-clinical animal imaging instrument for the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, the only NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the State of Florida. This fluorescence molecular tomography instrument is capable of generating quantitative measurements and high-resolution tomographic images of internally expressed fluorescent proteins, and fluorescent probes associated with internal organs, orthotopic tumor models and biochemical activities. Such an instrument will enable investigators to monitor therapy response, profile molecular phenotypes of cancers, noninvasively track cells during immunotherapy and track the distribution of fluorochrome-conjugated molecules throughout the body. Since this capability is not currently available in the State of Florida, this instrument will serve as a regional resource for investigators at other institutions as well.