High resolution positron emission tomography (PET) insert systems for multimodality PET/magnetic resonance imaging

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Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging modality that allows non-invasive assessment of tissue function at the molecular level in both clinical and preclinical settings through imaging the biodistribution of radioactively labelled tracers. The high specificity of many PET imaging tracers results in images with little anatomical information, making it difficult to assign the tracer uptake to specific tissues and complicating the interpretation and analysis of the images. The solution to this problem has been to integrate PET with an anatomical imaging modality, initially X-ray computed tomography (CT) and more recently, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Integration of PET with MR for preclinical hybrid PET/MR imaging of small animals can be efficiently accomplished through using a PET insert that fits within the bore of an existing high field MR system and can operate simultaneously with the MR. During the previous funding cycle, our group successfully developed and deployed such an insert for small animal PET/MR imaging using new MR compatible silicon photodetectors and a multi-layer scintillator array to preserve spatial resolution in the compact ring diameter PET system. PET insert systems for preclinical imaging are now becoming commercially available, including one based on our design commercialized through a Canadian company. In this application I will build on our expertise in PET insert systems for small animal PET/MR to achieve my long term objective of creating hardware and software technologies that enable the use of hybrid PET/MR imaging with PET inserts as a routine imaging modality in preclinical small animal research studies and in human neuroimaging application. To achieve this goal, the short term objectives of my research program detailed in this proposal cover three themes: i) algorithms and hardware to advance preclinical PET/MR imaging; ii) detector development for next generation PET insert systems; and iii) creating technologies to facilitate and automate small animal PET/MR imaging. These research objectives create multi-disciplinary training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students from Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics. Close collaboration with both end users of imaging systems at the preclinical animal imaging and clinical imaging levels, together with industrial partners that manufacture imaging systems, facilitates rapid testing and deployment of new technologies, integration of user feedback for revisions and a path for technology translation of new devices.