MONTREAL, CA, — GE Healthcare joins industry leaders in development of imaging technologies and molecular imaging agents at the World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) September 23 through 26 in Montreal, Canada. GE will highlight its comprehensive molecular imaging portfolio, from research to results, and provide insight into understanding disease from the beginning at two consortium workshops.
“As a company, we understand the value and impact of research on the healthcare industry,” said Jean-Luc Vanderheyden, GE Healthcare Global Molecular Imaging Technology Leader. “We are committed to providing researchers with the necessary tools, including the ability to produce tracers, services, and imaging equipment, to discover and understand disease at the molecular level.”
GE Healthcare’s unique molecular imaging research offering includes a robust pre-clinical portfolio, but also clinical technologies that have the research capabilities to discover new frontiers in molecular imaging. Together, these technologies provide a more complete line of sight to disease’s origins and behaviors, enabling earlier detection and evaluation of treatment.
The 2009 WMIC will bring together technically distinct and separate research communities that have a shared vision for clinical translation in molecular imaging. GE Healthcare takes the evolution of research technology to clinical practices very seriously. A recent example is the eXplore speCZT. The technology from this small animal SPECT was utilized in the creation of Alcyone technology: a groundbreaking advance in nuclear cardiology patients. GE will be highlighting similar technologies that have the capabilities for practical future clinical applications at WMIC booth #302.
Pre-clinical Imaging
Opening the door to new diagnostic imaging applications, GE Healthcare’s pre-clinical imaging serves the development of new therapeutics and tracers by using newest imaging technologies with animal disease models. The eXplore speCZT, the first full-ring solid-state detector small animal SPECT, focuses on high throughput and rapid dynamic imaging. The system utilizes a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector with high-energy resolution to enable dual or triple radionuclide imaging. The system also has the capability to combine with the world-class CT120 X-ray CT system for seamless dual-modality imaging, and fusion. In this configuration, users can benefit from improved quantitative accuracy in measuring SPECT tracer uptake with our new SPECT/CT Attenuation Correction feature.
Understanding researcher’s multi-modality needs, the Triumph pre-clinical system, is an all digital, fully integrated molecular imaging system for biomedical research and pharmaceutical development, designed to accommodate any combination of SPECT, PET, and CT.
PET Radiopharmacy
Molecular imaging is only possible with the latest in imaging agents and radiopharmaceuticals. TRACERlab FX synthesizers are designed for the production these PET tracers. Worldwide researchers use TRACERlabs for the synthesis of common tracers and the rapid development of new PET imaging agents. GE Healthcare simplifies the complexity of radiopharmacy infrastructure into a single touch-point solution. TRACERcenter-GMP is a combination of equipment, information and services that allow you to establish and operate your research or clinical PET tracer production center with confidence by providing state-of-the-art instrumentation, comprehensive documentation and GMP training and consulting services to provide new centers with support and knowledge for the production of PET tracers.
PET/CT
The powerful Discovery PET/CT 600 series continues to expand with the introduction of the Discovery PET/CT 690 – a premier molecular imaging tool designed go beyond the needs of the clinical practice and provide the necessary tools and technologies to explore the future of PET/CT imaging. With specialized detector configuration designed for sensitivity, event throughput and efficiency, researchers and clinicians have the necessary speed in workflow, protocol flexibility and unique timing resolution technology to help forge new frontiers in clinical techniques, drug discovery and motion management.
Life Sciences
The IN Cell Analyzer 2000 is a flexible cell imaging system for High Content Analysis with excellent image quality, speed and ease-of-use for all screening and research needs. The flexibility of the system enables scientists to perform a wide variety of previously challenging experiments with a single instrument: from investigative microscopy through to automated screening, and imaging of organelles, cells, tissues and whole organisms.
GE Workshops
Innovations in Pre-Clinical Molecular Imaging
Thursday, September 24th, 5:40pm – 7:10pm
Track the molecular progression of disease and response to therapeutics over time in small animals to accelerate research. This session will explore core emerging technologies and applications through GE Healthcare’s small animal molecular imaging systems in the journey to understand disease, from the beginning.
Current Topics in PET Tracer Research
Friday, September 25th, 7:30am – 9:00am
In order to understand disease, from the beginning, molecular imaging requires the convergence of imaging agents and equipment. In this session, researchers from the academic community and from GE Healthcare will present and discuss progress in development and validation of new PET tracers.
Courtesy (HealthNewsDigest.com)