AV¶ÌÊÓƵ

Objectives

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)- Tomographie par Emission de Positons (TEP) - (in French) is a medical imaging technique that allows doctors and researchers to investigate biochemical activity in living organisms using radioactive tracers. The Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging is part of the  at . It is accredited by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) and has a long tradition in PET physics and instrumentation developments as well as clinical research with an ever increasing interest in neuroscience. In 2000, Prof. Zaidi initiated a basic research program and founded the PET Instrumentation and Neuroimaging laboratory (PinLab) which is part of the  and . In a relatively short time, the group has assumed a leading role in Switzerland and become internationally recognized for excellence in medical imaging research with PET being a focus for its activities. Our group gained international recognition for contributions to the development and analysis of new image correction and reconstruction techniques for improved quantification of PET images as well as development and better understanding of PET Monte Carlo modelling tools. PinLab provides an academic environment in the hospital setting for the training of highly qualified personnel in medical physics and medical imaging. A close relationship with medical professionals helps us to focus our research on issues that are especially relevant for medicine. The membership of the group varies between 8 and 10 depending on the available funding and number of graduate students.

Our objective is to develop image reconstruction techniques, modeling/simulation tools and accurate data correction techniques for PET as well as the assessment of new possible designs of PET detection modules. We are particularly interested in improving the quality and quantitative accuracy of nuclear medicine images, and statistical analysis of different reconstruction algorithms and attenuation, scatter and partial volume correction techniques. A strong interest is arising in the field of molecular imaging-guided radiation therapy and monitoring treatment response. In this direction, we are developing various strategies for PET image segmentation and their validation in clinical setting in collaboration with AAPM Task group TG211 . More recently, the lab has been involved in the development of detector modules and novel designs for dedicated high-resolution PET detectors and hybrid imaging devices (PET/CT and PET/MRI) in collaboration with  and other research institutions.

We currently use biomedical imaging equipment from various vendors. Two dual-modality PET/CT scanners (mCT Flow Edge 128 and Biograph Vision) were installed in 2014 and 2019, respectively, 3 SPECT/CT cameras and a trimodality SPECT/PET/CT small-animal scanner from , now , installed in 2008. The Ingenuity TF whole-body PET/MR system developed by  was installed in 2010 in our division thus enabling unique clinical research studies to be carried out. The SPECT-CT and PET-CT scanners are connected to the hospital PACS through  workstations. We also have a nice tracer production facility equipped with a Cyclone 18/9 cyclotron from  where ¹⁸F-FDG is produced on a routine basis in addition to other ¹³N-based (e.g. NH3 amomia for cardiac perfusion imaging) and ¹¹C-based tracers (e.g. ¹¹C-acetate for prostate cancer imaging). We collaborate with several research groups including the  (Prof. J-P Thiran), Neuroradiology service (), the  (Prof. M. Becker and Prof. R. Miralbell), the  (Prof. Sviatoslav Voloshynovskiy) of , the  (Dr Crispin Williams, Dr Katayoun Doroud), Institut de Recherche de l'Ecole Navale (), Tehran AV¶ÌÊÓƵ of Medical Sciences (), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (), AV¶ÌÊÓƵ of Florida (), NIH-NCI (), AV¶ÌÊÓƵ of the West of Scotland (), AV¶ÌÊÓƵ of Groningen (), King's College London (), AV¶ÌÊÓƵ Medical Center Groningen (), MOFFITT (), The AV¶ÌÊÓƵ of British Columbia (), the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ of Southern Denmark () and the AV¶ÌÊÓƵ of Pennsylvania () among others ...