MR Solutions has installed a 3T PET-MR preclinical imaging system at Western University’s one of a kind ImPaKT Laboratory in Ontario.

The system offers dual modality imaging with both PET and MRI imaging available within one system. The great benefit of the MR Solutions’ system - particularly for a containment laboratory - is that the superconducting magnet is not cooled by liquid helium doing away with the need for an extensive venting system and shrinking the PET-MRI scanner by a factor of five to the size of a desk.

The ImPaKT facility is a one-of-kind facility combining PHAC certified containment level standards (CL2+ and CL3) with advanced in barrier enclosed vivo imaging modalities. These allow researchers to safely develop tools and methods to better understand the progression of infectious diseases, identify efficacious antimicrobial agents, develop diagnostic reagents to characterize hidden reservoirs of pathogens, and for the early and accurate detection of infections.

MR Solutions’ 3T PET-MR system will be used for anatomical imaging, cell tracking and molecular imaging in virus and pathogen research. The dual-modality imaging scanner combines MRI for the exquisite structural and functional characterisation of tissue with the extreme sensitivity of PET imaging for metabolism and tracking of uniquely labelled cell types or cell receptors.

At the ImPaKT facility the PET module is clipped onto the front of the MRI system for sequential imaging. The superior imaging resolution results are the best spatial resolution on the market at <0.7mm.

Paula Foster, PhD, who will be working in the new laboratory explained that “all kinds of experiments that we were never able to do before with viruses or pathogens and imaging can be carried out. The experiments that we can now do in this laboratory will be entirely new.”

MR Solutions has pioneered the replacing of liquid helium with its unique cooling system incorporated into the windings of the superconducting magnet and driven off a standard laboratory fridge. This has revolutionised high field MRI scanning providing better imaging with a much smaller system at a very competitive cost.

The ImPaKT facility includes MR’s 3T PET/MRI system, the bioluminescence (BLI)-CT scanner, multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT), multiphoton Microscopy, a high resolutions microscope, flow cytometry as well as a GLP PCR clean room, a viral vector core and barrier enclosed animal housing.

MR Solutions is the world’s leading independent developer and manufacturer of preclinical multi-modality MRI technology and remains the only company to deliver a commercial liquid helium -free 3T to 9.4T range of compact MRI scanners. In recognition of the company’s innovation and business acumen the company has received three Queen’s Awards for Enterprise – for innovation in 2016 and 2019 and for international trade in 2017.

MR Solutions has over 30 years’ experience and in excess of 2000 installations across the world. This includes sales of their MRI spectrometers. Its scanners are renowned for their excellence in terms of superior soft tissue contrast and molecular imaging ability.

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