For years, researchers at the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience have relied on a collection of state-of-the-art tools known as “core facilities,” to help them tackle complex medical research problems and make the discoveries that can improve human health and healthcare.

The toolbox just got a little bigger. Recently, the Petit Institute added to its core facilities with the acquisition of an IVIS SpectrumCT In Vivo Imaging System, thanks to an NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant.

“This is a high end piece of equipment,” says Steve Woodard, core facilities manager. “And it’s somewhat unique as it combines multiple imaging modalities into one unit. So it’s a bioluminescence/fluorescence imager, and also a CT imager. It’s a hybrid.”

And it is extremely valuable to the researchers who will be using it, Woodard adds, because they can use different imaging modalities on the same specimen, without having to transport the specimen from one instrument to another.

“It allows you to do experiments you couldn’t do otherwise,” says Andrés García, a Regents Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who serves on the Core Facilities Advisory Committee and led the grant writing process.

Users will be able to employ the imaging system to characterize disease progression and track therapeutic effects, essentially visualizing multiple events (using one or more specimens) simultaneously, ostensibly extracting the maximum amount of information from each subject, enabling a better understanding of disease biology.

“This is sensitive, fast technology, and the data is more consistent,” García says. “Also, as a core facility many groups will benefit – at least 15 to 20 NIH supported groups that we’ve identified. They’ll have access to the latest in multi-modal in vivo imaging.”

Contact:

Jerry Grillo
Communications Officer II
Parker H. Petit Institute for
Bioengineering and Bioscience