This proposal is to request a preclinical imaging system, IVIS-SpectrumCT by PerkinElmer, for the Small Animal Imaging (SAI) Facility, a shared imaging core facility at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The requested IVIS-SpectrumCT system will replace the IVIS-Kinetic system currently housed in the SAI core facility. The facility houses multiple pieces of preclinical imaging equipment for optical, PET/SPECT, CT, MRI, and ultrasound imaging, aiming to provide needed preclinical imaging support to various research groups. The IVIS- Kinetic system is the main optical imaging system in the SAI core and has not kept up with the growing needs for optical imaging at UNC. Installed more than 10 years ago, the IVIS-Kinetic system has shown three major problems in providing the optical imaging support: 1) Serious performance problems due to aging and intrinsic reliability issue of the camera; 2) The discontinued model with limited and phasing out service support by the vendor; 3) Lack of needed imaging features, including 3D imaging and built-in CT that are desired by many research groups. It is important to replace the IVIS-Kinetic system with a more reliable and more capable system, in order to continue providing adequate imaging support on funded research projects. The requested new system offers enhanced imaging capabilities including higher sensitivity, higher reliability, and capable of 3D optical imaging with built-in CT function. Major benefits from the new system include: 1) 3D bioluminescence and 3D fluorescence imaging will provide precise spatial distribution information, and enhance quantitative signal measurement; 2) The built-in CT imaging not only provides 3D anatomical information along with optical imaging, but also provides the opportunity to register optical imaging with other imaging modalities including MRI and PET. These additional features are needed in many projects, but are not possible in the current system; 3). A larger CCD chip size enables a larger imaging field of view, and resulting higher productivity and efficiency; 4) Advanced fluorescence imaging with more than 28 imaging filters and spectral unmixing capability will enable dual or triple fluorescence imaging channels with different fluorescent probes, largely benefiting studies on drug delivery and nanomedicine development. The proposal is supported by 17 Major Users and 3 Minor Users with 26 research projects. Strong institutional commitment is also demonstrated with $154K financial support towards the staff and service contract support in the next five years. The requested imaging equipment will undoubtedly enhance our imaging capability and facilitate the growing needs on imaging from research programs across campus, including cancer research, pharmaceutical research and gene therapy research.
The proposal is to request a preclinical imaging system, IVIS-SpectrumCT, for mutimodel optical/CT imaging capability in the Small Animal Imaging core facility. The system will replace the outdated IVIS- Kinetic imaging system, and provide much more reliable, high quality, and multimodal imaging service to various biomedical research on cancer, gene therapy, pharmaceutical science, and many more.
