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BC's World-Class Medical Imaging Scanner

04 October 2011

It will not be long before the Western Canadian research community will have access to an imaging machine of which there are only two in the world. The necessary funding has been received to install a micro SPECT/PET/CT scanner at the UBC Centre of Comparative Medicine (CCM) in the near future.  Acquired through a partnership between TRIUMF, UBC, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the machine will increase  capabilities in the field of nuclear medicine.

Principal Investigator, Vesna Sossi, Head of the UBC PET Group along with Paul Schaffer of TRIUMF and Urs Hafeli of UBC Pharmacology, had submitted a proposal to the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) in May for the purchase of a micro SPECT/PET/CT scanner. Recently, it was confirmed that the proposal was approved for $0.99M.

Positron emission tomography (or PET for short) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (or SPECT for short) work by detecting the decay products of isotopes from within the body. A key advantage of this particular scanner will be its versatility. Conventional PET/CT or SPECT/CT scanners are often restricted to a particular range of isotopes but with this multimodal imaging machine, a much broader range of isotopes can be used.  Each of the three modes serves a particular purpose: SPECT is able to detect gamma rays from isotopes decaying with a single photon, PET detects gammas along a 180° coincidence line from isotopes that decay with an anti-electron or beta particle, and the CT component uses x-rays  to produce a co-registered anatomical map upon which the SPECT or PET activity can be projected.  The advantage here is the ability to overlay physiological functional images (using PET or SPECT) onto anatomical images (using CT) in order to understand where biochemical changes are occurring in the body well before structural changes are evident.

TRIUMF’s main involvement in the CCM research program will be to supply medical isotopes to projects that may be focused on research topics in oncology, as in the case of Urs Hafeli, to cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. In the immediate future however, the micro SPECT/PET/CT scanner will be used to study neurology, with both Schaffer and Sossi eager to launch into their respective research programs.

Paul Schaffer is interested in investigating various pharmaceuticals, "...making sure that the radiopharmaceuticals behave in a way that we want them to, that they allow for diagnosis or the disease or condition that we want, without being restricted to one imaging modality. This machine will allow us to take a step in that direction."

Vesna Sossi will in turn be looking at degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. One of the capabilities of the new scanner will be to look at biological processes that occur over the course of 24hrs. "Labeling the same tracer with a PET and SPECT agent, one with a shorter and the other with a longer half-life respectively, allows us to study a process over an extended length of time," commented Sossi.

The acquisition of the scanner will have profound impacts. As noted by Paul Schaffer it will, "Allow the TRIUMF Nuclear Medicine program to actively pursue novel ideas with our collaborators.” Additionally, Vesna Sossi points out that having the scanner in close proximity will "Make some experiments, that would otherwise not be able to be conducted at a distance, possible."

Congratulations to the joint team for the successful CFI award and we look forward to new research breakthroughs enabled by the multi-modality imaging machine!

-- Aaron Lao, Communications Assistant