Imaging Resources

The PET Imaging Core is located in the new 92,000 sq. ft. Neuroscience Building at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University. Supporting infrastructure includes a Siemens RDS Eclipse cyclotron, radiochemistry laboratory (415 sq. ft.), PET scanner room (400 sq. ft.) equipped with a MicroPET Focus 220 scanner and support systems for anesthesia, and a control room (145 sq. ft.) for image analysis.

A dedicated host computer operates the MicroPET scanner. The Imaging Core has its own 3.2 Ghz linux server with firewall protection, 3 terabyte diskspace, and 3 workstations. Computational support includes data analysis, software development, data management, and data storage.

The infrastructure of the Imaging Core includes scientists with expertise in PET radiochemistry and nuclear physics and support staff to assist in the design, conduct, analysis and interpretation of imaging studies. Computational network resources are operated by the Yerkes Information Technology Division.

The MicroPET Focus 220 is a 220mm bore scaner that enables the evaluation of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and tissue target occupancy by using labeled drugs and other molecular imaging probes in nonhuman primates and rodents. The large bore gantry design permits imaging of nonhuman primates but also provides high resolution images for rodent studies. Axial field of view is 8 cm. Data acquistion is controlled by MicroPET Manager which is designed to interface with a variety of acquisition and post-processing protocols. The workstation configuration includes dual 3.06 Ghz CPUs, 2G RAM, and dual 146G SCSI hard drives for data acquisition.