Cancer Imaging

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The Cancer Imaging Facility Shared Resource is a broad service center that supports a range of research in the cancer community. The facility is comprised of a small animal imaging center, a cyclotron center and a probe chemistry core that supports both preclinical and clinical research. The main lab offers optical imaging modalities, including bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging systems, as well as two MicroCT scanners, an ultrasound scanner and cryotome systems for sectioning both tissues and whole animals. Off the main laboratory are rooms housing a 7 Tesla, 30cm horizontal bore MRI system, a MicroSPECT-CT scanner and MicroPET scanners. The cyclotron facility is located nearby in the Lucas center and a system is in place for the safe transport of tracers to the Clark Center and the Nuclear Medicine Department. Additional bench space is available for developing new imaging instruments and for performing procedures on animals. The surgical area has surgical lighting and a portable surgical microscope. Adjacent to the imaging facility are two rooms for housing animals that have either been injected with radionuclides for MicroPET or MicroSPECT imaging, or have been infected with select biosafety level 2 pathogens. A computer lab and administrative offices are also located within the core space. The Shared Resource is managed by two full-time PhD-level scientists, who provide training to users on each of the systems, as well as advice on experiment design, choice of appropriate imaging modality and help with data analysis. The Shared Resource also provides a networked computer server to allow data storage and access, with full data backup and archiving. This resource aims to provide a full array of small animal imaging modalities in a centralized location, allowing users to take advantage of the strengths of each modality within their experiments. We have a training program that enables users to run their own experiments, although assistance is available from both the Shared Resource staff and veterinarians, as necessary. With the building of a new mouse barrier facility adjacent to the Clark Center, a second small animal facility will be created within this barrier, duplicating the instruments present in the current facility, and the two imaging facilities will then run in parallel allowing imaging of the two populations. Academic oversight of this Shared Resource is provided by faculty in the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), headed by Drs. Christopher Contag and Sam Gambhir.