New detectors for positron emission tomography

正电子发射断层扫描（PET）是一种功能性医学成像的强大诊断技术。我们的总体目标是显着改善PET成像，以接近其最终的能力，这将提供神经科学家和肿瘤学家，例如，与上级系统诊断和检测疾病和调查疾病的机制。为了实现这一目标，我们将开发一个PET系统的基础上，液体氙（LPEX）伽马射线探测器，显着优于现有的PET系统的灵敏度和图像质量上级。在激光PET系统中可实现更高的空间分辨率（在消除视差误差的三维中为亚毫米）和上级能量分辨率，其中抑制了散射伽马和随机重合的污染。为了将研究结果转化为实践，我们将与最先进的商业PET系统进行比较来评估该系统并进行PET测量。我们将与工业合作伙伴一起开发和规划未来的LPET-PET系统，用于小动物研究和人类研究，这些系统可以经济地商业化。

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a powerful diagnostic technique employed in functional medical imaging. Our overall objective is to significantly improve PET imaging to approach its ultimate capability which would provide neuroscientists and oncologists, for example, with superior systems for diagnosing and detecting disease and investigating disease mechanisms. To achieve this goal we will develop a PET system based on liquid xenon (LXe) gamma ray detectors that is significantly superior to existing PET systems in sensitivity and image quality. Higher spatial resolution (sub-mm in three dimensions eliminating parallax errors) and superior energy resolution with suppressed contamination of scattered gammas and random coincidences are achievable in a LXe PET system. To translate the research results into practice, we will evaluate the system in comparison with state-of-the-art commercial PET systems and perform PET measurements. In concert with industrial partners we will develop and plan future LXe PET systems for small animal research and human studies which can be economically commercialized.