Infrastructure
The Werner Siemens Imaging Center (Head Prof. Dr. Bernd Pichler) combines biomedical research with a focus on small animal imaging and research in the field of translational medicine as well as development of novel small animal and clinical multi-modality imaging methods. Furthermore, the lab is equipped with two high resolution small animal PET scanners, a high resolution MicroCT, a small animal SPECT/CT scanner (all from Siemens, USA) as well as two whole body optical imaging systems (Hamamatsu Photonics, Herrsching, Germany; PerkinElmer, Baesweiler, Germany).
In addition, there are also two small animal 7T MRI systems available. Both systems are equipped with whole body coils for rats and mice as well as specific brain coils to allow precise signal detection. These systems can be used for measuring fMRI as well as contrast enhanced MR in mice and rats in high resolution. One of the scanners also contains a PET insert to conduct PET and MR simultaneously. The development has been finished in our lab in 2011 in close collaboration with Bruker Biospin MRI.
Furthermore, the lab has a state-of-the-art cell culture laboratory including laminar flow and incubator, a gamma counter, a phosphor imager, a histology and PCR lab including cryostat, and a microscopy lab. Prof. Dr. Pichler is also responsible for the Radiopharmacy group. Therefore, we have full access to all clinical, but also to novel established PET radiotracers. The laboratory is also equipped with ten high end computer workstations with specialized software, such as Inveon research workplace, PMOD® or Paravision but also commercial software packages like Matlab or simulation software.