DFG grants new project on PET imaging technology

Schematic diagram oft the animal chamber with four tracking cameras (left) which will be integrated into the quadHIDAC small animal PET scanner (right).

A new project on "Positron emission tomography of non-anesthetized freely-moving mice" will be funded by the German Research Association (DFG) for three years. The project had been proposed by the EIMI staff members Dr. Mohammad Dawood and Prof. Klaus Schäfers in cooperation with Prof. Xiaoyi Jiang from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Münster.

Using a dedicated high resolution small animal positron emission tomography (PET) scanner with a large field of view, the team will develop methods to study freely-moving mice. "We will develop combined listmode-based motion correction and image reconstruction methods to achieve a motion-free 3D PET image of the conscious animal", said Prof. Klaus Schäfers.

PET is an important tool to study molecular metabolism in vivo in clinical areas such as neurology, cardiology, and oncology. Small animal imaging plays a vital role in this regard and dedicated small animal PET scanners are used for this purpose. As motion degrades the quality of the PET images substantially, unconscious animals are studied. However, this limits quantitative PET studies since anesthesia influence organ functions and thereby changes the biodistribution of the radiotracers in various tissues.

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