As pioneers in biomedical imaging and neuroscience, the researchers at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have long studied the physiologic connections shared between the brain and the body. Now it is possible to image connected physiologic systems over the entire body at the same time. A new class of positron emission tomography (PET) scanners is making it possible to image multiple organs and organ systems - from the brain to the heart to the gut - simultaneously with high precision, revealing scientific and clinical insights. Mass General Brigham (MGB) is building a clinical translation and research program around this new technology.
Acquisition of this novel PET technology has been made possible through two grants awarded to Ciprian Catana, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Molecular Imaging Core at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center. The grants, entitled "Towards Integrative Medicine - Next-generation Whole-Body PET/CT to Study Interconnected Systems" and "High Performance PET/CT Scanner", were awarded by Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the National Institutes of Health, respectively. Dr. Catana has long been an innovator in PET technologies that support scientific understanding of the brain and the body. The new PET/CT will soon be available to support more than 200 researchers performing studies at the Martinos Center among which demand for PET imaging at has been steadily increasing. The uMI Panorama GS is the first PET device to bring together the powerful combination of high spatial resolution, sub-200 picosecond TOF timing resolution, and a large 148 cm of PET coverage to yield sensitivity that is 40 times higher than a conventional PET scanner. These unique capabilities will give researchers and clinicians across MGB the ability to simultaneously image physiologic systems over the whole body for the first time with extremely high sensitivity and resolution that will lead to a new understanding of the body and disease. This project is the first phase of a clinical translation research program at Mass General Brigham.
Molecular imaging, which uses radiopharmaceutical agents injected into the body to image physiologic function and disease, continues to grow as a field for scientific discovery and diagnosis. "At United Imaging, we are committed to investing in these next-generation technologies that can support the academic mission for scientific discovery and provide equal healthcare for all," says Jeffrey Bundy, PhD, CEO of United Imaging in North America. United Imaging created the first total-body PET/CT, the uEXPLORER, in 2019, through the NIH-funded Explorer consortium between U.C. Davis and the University of Pennsylvania. The new uMI Panorama GS is the second such long-axial FOV PET/CT system from United Imaging. Abram Voorhees, PhD, Senior Director of Academic Alliances emphasizes the importance of this collaboration: "We are excited to support the vision at the Martinos Center and believe that this work will yield both a greater understanding of the body and new clinical applications for advanced whole-body PET/CT at MGB." The uMI Panorama GS is planned to be operational in the summer of 2025.
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