Small Animal Imaging

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Small Animal Imaging

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Director:

Michael Rosol, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Radiology

Contact Information:

Name: Michael Rosol

Phone: 843-792-6837

E-Mail: rosol@musc.edu

Location: 4th Floor Hollings Cancer Center

Description:

The Small Animal Imaging Shared Resource provides state-of-the-art

in vivo imaging capabilities to MUSC researchers. The mission is to

support the thriving and growing research environment in the cancer

center and the university at large. The facility opened in March 2008.

In vivo serial imaging of animal models of disease can provide information

not easily obtained by other methods. Additionally, with in vivo tracking

of a disease process, the number of animals used in an experiment can

be reduced by eliminating the need to sacrifice animals
at multiple time points.

The advent of commercially available imaging devices capable

of interrogating small animals is revolutionizing biomedical research

and has opened up the field of molecular imaging. Our facility provides

access to instruments and expertise to aid MUSC researchers in leading

the way to advancing biomedicine.

Services:

The imaging center now offers lentiviral-based cell line transduction services in order to induce your cell lines to express either firefly or Renilla luciferase. Price per cell line (flask) is $250. Please contact Dr. Rosol if you have specific questions.

Fee Schedule

All studies must be IACUC approved prior to scheduling any imaging of live animals. Please consult the core director Dr. Rosol to pre-plan your initial imaging studies

Prices include reconstructions of data sets into standard image formats. Additional post-processing of image data is extra and will incur the hourly rates for that modality.
Contrast agents and radioisotopes are separate charges.

Hourly Rates
                        Cancer Center Members            MUSC Faculty              External
Assisted
Imaging
Micro-CT                    $100                                        $125                         $165
Micro-PET(CT)             $200                                        $250                         $330
BLI                              $50                                          $62                            $82
MRI                                                                    $200 base/$100 off-hours for all users

Minimum time charged is 30 minutes, after this time charges are accrued in
15 minute increments.

Equipment:

Currently, the HCC Small Animal Imaging Facility has a Caliper Life

Sciences IVIS 200 small animal optical imaging device, a Siemens

Inveon micro-CT/PET, and access to a shared Bruker 7T MRI. The

following are the main instruments housed in the HCC:

• Xenogen/Caliper Life Sciences IVIS 200 Bioluminescent Imaging

System

The IVIS 200 is capable of imaging up to 5 animals at a time and is

also capable of providing limited 3-D depth information. The imaging

system consists of an enclosed, heated container containing a

specimen platform for the animals and a cooled, back-thinned CCD

camera to capture both a visible light photograph of the subjects and

the luminescent image. Images can be obtained in less than one

minute and are readily quantifiable.

• Siemens Inveon Micro-CT/PET

This dual-modality system is manufactured by Siemens Medical

Solutions (Knoxville, TN) and contains the latest in software and

hardware. Both micro-CT and micro-PET images can be acquired,

and image data can be co-registered so that the PET image data can

be anatomically localized with the micro-CT imaging data.

The micro-CT unit contains a 30-80 kVp x-ray source. The system

allows for an approximately 9 cm x 6 cm maximum field of view.

Ultra-high resolution images down to 15 µm of ex vivo specimens

can be obtained. Specialized software and phantoms for bone

quantitation are available.

For micro-PET studies we have ready access to 18F-FDG for high

resolution metabolic imaging. The instrument is capable of using CT

or 57Co for attenuation correction. Images of one to several mm in

spatial resolution are achievable.

Medical University of South Carolina
86 Jonathan Lucas Street
Charleston, SC 29425
(843)-792-0700

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