Co-Directors: Joseph Ackerman, PhD, and Michael Welch, PhD
The Small Animal Cancer Imaging Core is supported primarily through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Small Animal Imaging Resource Program (SAIRP), of which Washington University is one of five centers. NCI SAIRP funding was initiated in September 1999 and will continue for five years, providing $3.2 million in total support.
Located in the heart of the university's medical complex, the Washington University SAIRP Center provides intellectual and physical resources devoted to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) directed toward small laboratory animals such as hamsters, rats and mice. MRI resources include two state-of-the-art 4.7 Tesla multinuclear scanners with magnet clear bores of 33 and 40 cm and actively shielded gradient-coil clear bores of 29, 16 and 10 cm. The scanners are driven via Varian UNITY-INOVA consoles and Oxford/Magnex high-performance, low-noise gradient systems. The PET resource is centered on a newly designed microPET scanner from Concord Microsystems, providing 1.5 mm resolution and high signal sensitivity. Two cyclotrons and an associated radiochemistry laboratory are connected to the PET facility via pneumatic tube system and small bore gas line for transport of liquid (contained in syringes) and gaseous radiopharmaceuticals. Both MRI and PET scanners offer sensitivity and resolution optimized for small animal research. Additional resources for support of small animal imaging include housing, physiologic support and monitoring equipment, surgical procedure rooms, wet chemistry laboratories, and data analysis and archival systems.
The core provides Siteman Cancer Center members with the latest in small animal MRI and PET capabilities. Highly skilled staff members are available to assist, advise and collaborate on projects of interest to Siteman members.
STAFF:
Sheng-Kwei "Victor" Song, PhD, MRI operations co-director
Joel R. Garbow, PhD, MRI operations co-director
Richard Laforest, PhD, PET operations co-director
Jason S. Lewis, PhD, PET operations co-director
Alpay Ozcan, PhD, computer systems and network manager and imaging computation scientist
Chris Kroenke, PhD, postdoctoral research associate
LOCATION: Barnes-Jewish Hospital South, East Building, Suite 2313
TO ACCESS: Call Joseph Ackerman at 314-747-1212 or Michael Welch at 314-362-8436.
As of April 7, 2008, the NIH requires investigators with a publication using Siteman (or other NIH-funded) shared resources to submit (or have submitted for them) their final, peer reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central(PMC) upon acceptance of publication, to be made publicly available within 12 months of publication. Many journals automatically submit these for authors, but Washington University also has assistance available through the Becker Medical Library. Please see http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#b7 or http://becker.wustl.edu/services/scholarly/nihpolicy.html for more information.
PUBLICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: If research supported by the ll Animal Cancer Imaging Core results in publication, please acknowledge this support by including the following in your publication(s):
We thank the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., for the use of the ll Animal Cancer Imaging Core, which provided __________ service. The Siteman Cancer Center is supported in part by an NCI Cancer Center Support Grant #P30 CA91842.