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Equipment available in CAMI

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Bruker Biospec 9.4T MRI

The 9.4T Bruker Biospec MRI system is designed for hardware-intensive experiments. It is equipped with an Autopac laser positioning system enabling reproducible subject positioning for timecourse studies.

Example applications include high resolution anatomic imaging in mouse and rat body, diffusion imaging (DWI, DTI) of brain or tumors, dynamic contrast enhanced imaging (DCE) of tumors, cardiac functional imaging, and multimodality imaging with other CAMI instruments.

Technical details

photo of 9.4T MRI system
photo of Bruker Pharmascan 7T MRI system

Bruker Pharmascan 7T MRI

The 7T Bruker Pharmascan MRI system is designed for high-throughput basic imaging experiments. This system is frequently used for relaxometry and in vitro characterization of novel MRI contrast agents.

Technical details

Bruker Skyscan 1276 microCT

The Bruker Skyscan 1276 is a dedicated microCT system designed for both rapid in vivo imaging and high resolution specimen scanning. Applications include imaging of lung metastases, bone mineral density, bone regeneration, arthritis, osteoporosis, implantable devices, vascular casts, 3D prints, and other materials.

In addition to biomedical studies, CAMI welcomes any projects that may benefit from nondestructive CT imaging, including materials science, archeology, comparative anatomy, and more.

Technical details

photo of Bruker Skyscan 1276 microCT scanner
photo of IVIS Spectrum optical imaging system

Perkin-Elmer IVIS Spectrum

The Revvity IVIS Spectrum is a whole-body optical imaging system featuring high-sensitivity in vivo imaging of fluorescence and bioluminescence. Up to 5 mice can be imaged simultaneously with a 23 cm field of view. Applications include in vivo bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging of reporter genes, labeled cells, and distribution of novel contrast agents.

Technical details

MILabs U-SPECT-II SPECT/CT

The MILabs U-SPECT-II system is the highest resolution preclinical SPECT scanner currently available due to its novel detector design and pinhole collimators that magnify the sample. Applications include imaging cardiac perfusion, cell tracking, apoptosis & necrosis, bone remodeling, and radiolabeled compounds.

Technical details

photo of MILabs SPECT/CT scanner
photograph of Mediso NanoScan PET/CT

Mediso NanoScan PET/CT

The Mediso NanoScan microPET/CT system is designed to balance high sensitivity with high throughput. Example applications include imaging of glucose metabolism in the brain or heart and imaging of radiolabeled antibody uptake.

Technical details

Technical details

Bruker Biospec 9.4T MRI

The 9.4T Bruker Biospec MRI system (30 cm bore) is designed for hardware-intensive experiments such as high resolution imaging, functional imaging, and diffusion imaging. The large gradient set has an internal diameter of 20 cm and a gradient strength of 200 mT/m, and is suitable for imaging larger rodents such as rabbits and guinea pigs. The gradient insert with 12 cm diameter and a gradient strength of 450 mT/m is suitable for imaging mice and rats. An AutoPac laser positioning system enables rapid and precise sample positioning. The system has four receive channels for parallel imaging, and four transmit channels, including one for X-nuclei. 

Available coils:

Transmit/Receive Volume coils:

  • 23mm quadrature coil for mouse head
  • 25mm quadrature coil for phantoms
  • 38mm quadrature coil for rat head and mouse body
  • 72mm quadrature coil for rat body
  • 72mm linear coil for rat body
  • 72mm 1H/19F dual-tune linear coil

Receive-only Surface coils (used in conjunction with 72mm quadrature volume coil as transmitter)

  • 4 channel phased array (2×2) surface coil for mouse brain
  • 4 channel phased array (2×2) surface coil for rat brain
  • 4 channel phased array (1×4) surface coil for rat heart

Bruker Pharmascan 7T MRI

The 7T Bruker PharmaScan MRI system (16 cm bore) is designed for high throughput experiments for imaging anatomy and basic function. Its gradient set has a 9 cm bore suitable for imaging mice and rats, and a strength of 120 mT/m. Four receive channels enable parallel imaging. 

Available coils:

Transmit/Receive Volume coils (fixed tune/match):

  • 23mm quadrature coil for mouse head
  • 35mm quadrature coil for mouse body
  • 60mm quadrature coil for small rats

Receive-only Surface coils (used in conjunction with 72mm linear transmit-only volume coil)

  • 4 channel phased array (2×2) surface coil for mouse brain
  • 4 channel phased array (2×2) surface coil for rat brain

Perkin-Elmer IVIS Spectrum

The IVIS Spectrum can be used to simultaneously image 5 mice or 3 rats. It is equipped with 10 narrow band excitation filters (30nm bandwidth) and 18 narrow band emission filters (20nm bandwidth). In conjunction with the spectral unmixing algorithms, these can be used to image multiple fluorophores in the same animal.

Bruker Skyscan 1276 MicroCT

In May 2024, a Bruker Skyscan 1276 Micro Computed Tomography (microCT) scanner was installed in CAMI. The Skyscan 1276 spans the range of capabilities from rapid in vivo imaging to high resolution specimen imaging. A continuous rotation mode enables rrapid imaging with scan times as low as 3.9 seconds, which reduces radiation dose and expands the options for longitudinal studies. At the other end of the spectrum, the Skyscan has variable magnification for scanning specimens down to 6 micron resolution. For in vivo studies, the Skyscan has respiratory and cardiac gating capabilities to account for motion caused by breathing and heartbeat, respectively. The system is equipped with exchangeable hardware filters that will significantly improve the quality and detail with which we can image implanted devices, a major need in NU’s biomedical community. The Skyscan has a flexible array of animal beds and can accommodate animals of up to 450g. Furthermore, the Skyscan animal handling system is compatible with the Bruker MRI systems, enabling multimodality MRI/CT studies. 

Available sample beds:

Animal beds:

  • 28 mm in diameter for small mice
  • 40 mm in diameter for large mice or small rats
  • 70 mm in diameter for large rats

Sample holders:

  • 20 mm in diameter, 150 mm in length
  • 12 mm in diameter, 120 mm in length

Large carbon composite bed:

  • 73 mm internal diameter / 76 mm external diameter, 300 mm in length

MILabs U-SPECT-II SPECT/CT

A state-of-the-art micro MILabs U-SPECT+/CT Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) with x-ray Computed Tomography was installed in CAMI in August 2014. It has higher spatial resolution than its competitors (0.25 mm) and higher sensitivity (as high as 12000 cps/MBq), using three NaI(TI) 472 × 595 detector panels. The CT system has 12-bit, 1280 × 1024 detector, capable of 80 µm voxel size. An animal monitoring system allows for cardiac and respiratory gated image acquisition (M2M BioVet). Image acquisition is performed on a quad-core CPU computer and image reconstruction on a 32 core workstation.

Animal beds:

  • Mouse bed
  • Rat bed
  • Medium sized animal bed

Collimators:

Collimator specifications for the MILABS SPECT/CT
Collimator name Pinhole [mm] Resolution [mm] Sensitivity [cps/MBq] Diameter [mm]
General purpose mouse 0.6 0.4 >1500 44
General purpose rat 1.5 1.1 >1500 98
General purpose medium-sized animal 2.5 2.2 >950 144
High resolution ex vivo mouse 0.25 0.25 300 44
High resolution rat 0.8 0.8 >700 98

Mediso nanoScan PET/CT

In April 2015, a Mediso nanoScan Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner was installed in CAMI. The nanoScan PET/CT has the highest spatial resolution on the market at 0.3 mm. The nanoScan’s 11 cm bore size is suitable for imaging mice and rats. The LYSO:Ce based detectors have > 6% sensitivity with image quantification accuracy over 97%. Attenuation correction is accomplished with the CT module, which can image at 10 µm resolution. The GPU based reconstruction is performed during acquisition, with reconstruction often finishing only minutes after acquisition is completed. Therefore the system is capable of high throughput without compromising image quality.

Available sample beds:

Animal beds:

  • 30 mm diameter for mice
  • 51 mm diameter for rats

Sample beds:

  • 59 mm diameter carbon fiber