We have two high-resolution and high-sensitivity PET (H2RS-PET) scanners under development, which are total-body small animal PET scanners and funded by two NIH R01 awards.

The first one is based on BGO crystal arrays and dual-ended readout, which is for ultra-low-dose preclinical imaging studies, such as imaging low-levels of receptor binding and transgene expression, and imaging of therapeutic cell circulation using mouse and rat models.  This scanner has an inner diameter of 180 mm and axial length of 334 mm.  The estimated detection sensitivity is > 40 % and the resolution is ~ 1 mm at the center of the scanner. 

The second one has a resolution of ~0.5 mm and over 20% detection sensitivity at the center of the scanner. This scanner has an inner diameter of ~110 mm and axial length of ~170 mm. The spatial resolution approaches the theoretically achievable limits of PET imaging. Compared to current state-of-the-art small-animal PET scanners, this PET scanner improves the spatial resolution by more than two-fold for a comparable sensitivity or the detection sensitivity by 20-fold for a comparable spatial resolution.   This would set the stage for using PET for applications such as high-resolution brain studies and fast total-body dynamic imaging studies in mouse models. 

The two scanners will also provide useful preclinical tools to develop, validate, and characterize the paradigms and protocols that will feed into human total-body PET studies and brain studies.

Interested in a research collaboration? Please contact us (email: h2rspet at gmail dot com)!

More information can be found at https://h2rs-pet.ucdavis.edu