Biological Imaging Centre


	Home - Gallery - Publications - Request System Time - Vacancies - Contact

Home

The Biological Imaging Centre

The Biological Imaging Centre (BIC) was established to develop and implement non-invasive imaging techniques, principally magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), to increase our understanding of gene function in health and disease in the whole functioning organism. The BIC will, uniquely, serve as a bridge that links basic molecular biology research with clinical investigation and practice, for the characterisation of functional genomics. Its aims are to develop and make available in vivo imaging techniques which can be applied to a wide range of animal models of disease. The non-invasive nature of the methodology, and the high spatial and temporal resolution available, mean that time course studies on the same animal are now feasible.

The BIC is equipped with two multinuclear MR systems (9.4T and 4.7T) and one miniature PET system (Quad-HIDAC) suitable for in vivo imaging in morphological phenotyping, cardiology, neurobiology, hepatology, developmental biology, toxicology and molecular biology. MR imaging can be used to obtain anatomical and pathophysiological information from living animals (rodents) and small biological samples (isolated organs and excised tissue). The MR systems also have the capability to carry out metabolic studies of most tissues by means of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). PET imaging is a powerful technique that can be used to assess dynamic metabolic and pathophysiological processes non-invasively in living animals (rodents). The Quad-HIDAC system has the highest resolution available through PET in the world.

Home - MRI - PET - Ultrasound - Bioluminescence - Gallery - Publications - Request System Time - Vacancies - Contact
MRC Clinical Sciences Centre - Medical Research Council - Imperial College London