Preclinical Molecular Imaging
Mission
The Small Experimental Animal Imaging Laboratory has an instrumentation platform for molecular imaging in small animals. Its markedly multidisciplinary nature makes it possible to address problems from different perspectives, facilitating the rapid translation of the research results generated into clinical practice and industry.
The group’s main objectives are research into advanced biomedical imaging technologies and providing imaging services to other researchers, both from the hospital and from other centres.
The group has led and continues to lead various centres of excellence in Spain, such as the "Molecular Imaging and Multimodality Network" and the "Technological Innovation Network in Hospitals", as well as several large technology transfer consortia (CENIT programme).
Description of the facilities
The laboratory occupies approximately 500 m2 in the hospital, of which just under half corresponds to office space for staff and the remainder to working laboratories (magnetic resonance imaging rooms, radiopharmacy, PET, SPECT, hot laboratory for cell cultures, optical imaging room). There is also another area of approximately 500 m2 on the campus of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, focused more on technological development.
The laboratory has the following equipment:
- High-resolution PET/CT (SuperArgus, SEDECAL)
- High-resolution SPECT (U-SPECT-II, MILabs)
- 7-Tesla magnetic resonance scanner for small animals (Bruker Biospec 70/20 USR)
- Planar optical imaging systems (bioluminescence and fluorescence)
- 3D selective plane illumination microscope (SPIM) with 5 lasers (405, 488, 532, 590, 649)
- Monitoring systems for laboratory animals (SA model 1025 and model 1030) compatible with the magnetic resonance system (temperature, respiration, heart rate and pulse oximetry)
- Monitoring systems for laboratory animals (RGB) compatible with PET (respiration and heart rate)
- Radiopharmacy unit for the "in situ" production of radiotracers
- Autoradiography system (BAS-5000, Fujifilm)
- Inhalation anaesthesia systems (sevoflurane)
Services offered
The types of studies that can be carried out cover the entire range of possibilities:
- Magnetic resonance imaging: high-resolution 'conventional' anatomical imaging, spectroscopy (1-H, 31-P, 13-C), angiography (MRA), tissue perfusion, diffusion (DWI, DTI), magnetisation transfer, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), dynamic cardiac studies, cell tracking ('cell tracking'), etc.
- Nuclear imaging (PET and SPECT): studies of cellular metabolism using glucose (18F-FDG) or palmitic acid (18F-FTHA), with applications in oncology, neurology, cardiology, and inflammatory and infectious diseases. In vivo tracking of biomolecules (antibodies/peptides) and cells, etc.
- Computed tomography imaging: bone and biomaterial, morphometric, pulmonary studies, etc.
- Molecular probes: synthesis of nanoparticles, optical and/or radioactive labelling of biomolecules (antibodies, peptides, microvesicles, etc.)
- In vivo optical imaging: studies of candida bacteraemia (genetically modified strains), tumour metabolism (genetically modified cells), cell tracking, etc.
- SPIM: 3D immunohistochemical studies of whole or semi-whole organs.
- Animal procedures: the laboratory's technical team has extensive experience in both basic animal procedures (substance administration, blood collection, perfusions, necropsies, etc.) and advanced procedures (cerebral stroke, stereotactic surgery, myocardial infarction, etc.)
- Other services provided by the laboratory include advice on the optimal techniques for a specific problem and data post-processing (including quantification, co-registration of modalities, statistical parametric analysis -SPM-, etc.).
Contact
Lorena Cussó
Head of the preclinical platform
E-mail: lcusso(ELIMINAR)@hggm.es
Web: https://image.hggm.es/
Tel: 91 426 50 17