Molecular Imaging Research And Clinic LEuven

MIRACLE, the Molecular Imaging Research and Clinic center of the K.U.Leuven/UZ Gasthuisberg Leuven is designed to intergrate the highly sensitive techniques of PET, SPECT, microPET and microSPECT with other anatomo-functional imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, optical imaging to develop an integrated set of core technologies for drug development, clinical trials and fundamental research studies.

Full Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) is currently under construction. Through the Flemish government grant Hercules III in collaboration with industry (Merck, Johnson and Johnson, GE Healthcare and Siemens), a substantial injection in the GMP infrastructure has been given in 2010. Full GMP compliance is projected by Q4 2011.

The Small Animal Imaging Center as part of MIRACLE is supported by the KUL as center of excellence, and works in close collaboration with:

• SCIL (stem cell institute Leuven, head Prof. C. Verfaillie)
• Division of Molecular Medicine (Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy, head prof. Z. Debyser; Laboratory for Neurobiology and Gene Therapy, head prof. V. Baekelandt and Laboratory for Molecular Virology and Drug Discovery, Head prof. M. Witvrouw).

The Core Lab incorporates the available know-how and infrastructure of the Division of Nuclear Medicine for

• study design
• study execution
• analysis of clinical imaging trials

Infrastructure

Available imaging hardware

In the Division of Nuclear Medicine (head Prof Dr L Mortelmans)

• PET-CT (Siemens BioGraph LSO, 2-ring CT scanner)
• PET (Siemens BGO HR+)
• SPECT
  • Triple-Head (Philips IRIX)
  • Dual-Head (3) (Siemens ECAM (2), Biad Trionix)
  • Single Head (2) (Millenium GE, Starcam)
• MicroPET (Concorde FOCUS LSO)
• MicroSPECT (in-house developement pinhole SPECT)
• Optical Imaging : Bioluminiscence (reservation)
  In the Division of Radiology (head Prof Dr G Marchal)
• several multislice CT
• MRI (1.5 and 3 Tesla)
• microMR (9 Tesla)
• microCT (lab Prof. Bouillon, Endocrinology)
  Hospital-wide PACS system (Agfa-Gevaert)
• with online radiology and nuclear medicine images
• fully integrated in HIS (Hospital Information System - Clinical Work Station)

Available image processing software

• An integrated on-line imaging display, archiving and analysis system (Link Medical)
• A large set of well-validated IDL modules for
  • data acquisition
  • data analysis of static, dynamic and gated planar and tomographic datasets
  • reconstruction (iterative, filtered backprojection)
  • corrections for attenuation, scatter, partial volume
  • image algebra
  • multimodality image fusion
• Gated cardiac study analysis (Germano)
• Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM 2k - SPM 99)
• Pixel-Based Kinetic Modelling (PMOD - Zurich)
• HERMES (Nuclear Diagnostics)
• Image Processing and Analysis Libraries
  • Image registration (MIRIT)
  • Image segmentation (EMS)

Available radiochemistry and radiopharmaceutical facilities

• In-house cyclotron (IBA 18/9)
• 11 shielded cabinets, each holding a PET synthesis module
• synthesis of a.o.:
  • [11C]choline
  • [11C]DASB
  • [11C]flumazenil
  • [11C]methionine
  • [11C]PE2I
  • [11C]PIB
  • [11C]raclopride
  • [11C]PMP
  • [11C]carfetanil
  • [11C]acetate
  • [11C]NE40
  • [18F]Fallypride
  • [18F]FDG
  • [18F]FET
  • [18F]FHB
  • [18F]FHBG
  • [18F]FLT
  • [18F]FMISO
  • [18F]FECT
  • [18F]fluoride
  • [18F]benzoic acid
  • [68Ga]Ga-DOTATOC
  • [13N]NH3
  • [15O]water
  • [13N]-ammonia
• 3 LAF cabinets with lead shielding for handling and dispensing of radiolabelled compounds
• 8 Radio-HPLC systems
• Radio gas chromatograph
• Radio-HPLC in series with mass spectrometer for LC-MS of radiolabelled compounds
• Phosphor screen autoradiography system (Packard)
• Fully equipped organic synthesis lab

Available facilities for clinical pharmacology within UZ Leuven

• Centre for Clinical Pharmacology (head Prof. Dr. J. de Hoon)
  • The Center for Clinical Pharmacology employs a team of highly qualified scientists some of whom have over 20 years of experience in drug research.
  • Extensive experience in Phase I and II studies
  • 20 bed capacity

Know-how and expertise

Medical

• Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with applications in
  • cardiology
  • oncology
  • neurology and psychiatry
  • infection and inflammation
• Planar gamma camera imaging and Single Photon Emission (Computed) Tomography (SPECT) with applications in
  • cardiology
  • oncology
  • neurology and psychiatry
  • gastro-enterology
  • uronephrology
  • orthopaedics, sports medicine and traumatology
  • infection and inflammation
• Clinical Trials
• Cost Benefit Studies
• Nuclear Equipment
• Radioimmunotherapy

Image processing, instrumentation and radiation physics

• Nuclear Equipment (PET + gamma camera + counters) and quality control
• Reconstruction techniques (iterative - FBP)
• Partial Volume Correction
• Attenuation and Scatter correction
• Image fusion
• Kinetic modelling
• Dosimetry and radiation protection
• Medical Image Computing for diagnosis & therapy (MIC)

Radiochemistry and radiopharmacy

• General clinical radiopharmacy
• Halogen, carbon and technetium radiochemistry
• Cyclotron radioistope production and chemistry
• Good manufacturing practice
• VirRad (virtual radiopharmacy)