The major goals of the Small Animal Imaging Core are to establish the needed infrastructure and develop image analysis tools for providing services to members of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Core will provide two main categories of services, including image acquisition and image analysis. The imaging modalities for the former service include magnetic resonance imaging/spectroscopy (MRI/MRS), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), optical imaging and computed tomography (CT). In particular, our research team has devised the SPECT and the first reported CT using a field emission carbon nanotube x-ray source. The ability to devise the imaging devices is likely to offer substantial flexibility to further improve the image quality in the near future. The latter service will provide image analysis tools such as lesion segmentation and co-registration for images acquired from the same animal but different modalities and/or different animals so that a group analysis can be conducted. The SAI core is led by Dr. Weili Lin who has extensive experience in MR imaging. The image analysis component will be led by Dr. Steve Aylward, who likewise has extensive experieince and funded research in image analysis. The Core adds value to the Center by offering non-invasive approaches to assess in vivo conditions and allow longitudinal studies, most likely substantially reducing the number of animals needed. In addition, the availability of multiple imaging modalities and the image analysis tools will provide powerful tools for the study of cancer mechanisms non-invasively.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 1525 publications
