Small Animal PET Scanner

描述(由申请人提供)： 范德比尔特大学医学院正在申请部分支持，以购买一台用于研究啮齿动物和灵长类动物的小型动物PET扫描仪。该扫描仪将大大加强和扩展范德比尔特国立卫生研究院目前资助的癌症研究和神经科学研究领域的研究。目前，NIH资助的9名研究人员的项目需要一台小型动物PET扫描仪，用于研究肿瘤生长、基因表达、恶性转化、转移扩散、大脑可塑性、前脑发育、抗精神病药物、作用机制、大脑神经递质相互作用和致幻药物。尽管Vanderbilt拥有设备齐全的临床诊断和临床研究PET中心，但GE Advance扫描仪的临床和临床研究用途以及5-6 mm组织的重建分辨率已饱和，这不足以用于啮齿动物研究，也不适合于灵长类大脑研究。这项研究所需的PET放射性药物可从范德比尔特PET放射化学实验室获得。小动物PET扫描仪将由用户设施在Robert Kessler博士的指导下操作，并由一个咨询委员会监督，该委员会将确保平等接触所有NIH资助的研究人员。该设施将配备物理和处理人员以及凯斯勒博士，后者将在实验设计、数据获取和分析方面为新用户提供帮助。小动物PET扫描仪是范德比尔特大学医学院长期研究计划的关键组成部分。它的实际位置将设在PET中心内，管理上位于约翰·戈尔博士领导下新成立的研究成像中心内。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Vanderbilt University School of Medicine is applying for partial support for the acquisition of a small animal PET scanner for studying rodents and primates. This scanner will significantly enhance and extend currently funded NIH research at Vanderbilt in the areas of cancer research and neuroscience research. At present, nine NIH funded investigators have projects requiring a small animal PET scanner for studies of tumor growth, gene expression, malignant transformation, metastatic spread, cerebral plasticity, forebrain development, antipsychotic drug, mechanisms of action, cerebral neurotransmitter interactions, and hallucinogenic drugs. Although Vanderbilt has a well equipped PET Center for clinical diagnosis and clinical research the GE Advance scanner is saturated by clinical and clinical research use, and a reconstructed resolution of a tissue of 5-6mm, which is inadequate for rodent studies and suboptimal for primate brain studies. PET radiopharmaceuticals needed for this research are available from the Vanderbilt PET Radiochemistry Laboratory. The small animal PET scanner will be operated by a user facility under the direction of Dr. Robert Kessler with the oversight of an Advisory Committee who will assure equal access to all NIH funded investigators. The facility will be staffed by physics and processing staff as well as Dr. Kessler who will aid new users in experimental design, data acquisition and analysis. The small animal PET scanner is a critical component in the long-term research plan at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. It will be sited physically within the PET Center administratively within the newly formed Center for Research Imaging under the Direction of Dr. John Gore.