Center for Molecular Imaging Technology and Translation

The Center for Molecular Imaging Technology and Translation (CMITT) is a National Center for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering funded by the NIBIB. Originally located at the Gordon Center for Medical Imaging (GCMI) at MGH and Harvard Medical School, it is now located at Yale Medical School as part of the PET Center. Working within the interdisciplinary environment (e.g., radionuclide production and chemistry, imaging sciences, pharmacokinetics and clinical research) of the Yale PET Center, the aim of CMITT is to develop and apply cutting-edge imaging technologies that take advantage of the game-changing capabilities afforded by simultaneous PET/MR. Importantly, CMITT also disseminates many of the technologies to standalone PET and, in some cases, MR imaging platforms.

The vision for CMITT is to provide novel imaging technologies that will revolutionize the way scientists and physicians view and use PET and MRI. The conventional view posits that MR and PET are separate modalities, with MRI offering superior visualization of soft tissue anywhere in the body with some additional opportunities for physiological and biochemical measurement. PET, on the other hand, is recognized for its abilities to measure biochemical reactions (like glucose utilization) but it is seen as weak in its anatomic capability, due to limited spatial and temporal resolution. We see PET/MR as a paradigm-shifting new joint modality. Motion corrections derived from simultaneous MRI are combined with Point Spread Function-corrections in the PET image reconstruction, allowing studies in human and animal subjects to achieve the full sensitivity and intrinsic resolution (~3mm) of the instrument, and enable novel explorations. As we have demonstrated recently, since PET and MRI measurements are statistically independent, joint estimation of biochemical mechanisms that simultaneously affect both PET and MRI is guaranteed to improve SNR. Furthermore, we have shown already in the brain, that MRI benefits from PET in the joint mapping of CBV and neurotransmission.

The Center for Molecular Imaging Technology and Translation is a Biomedical Imaging Resource funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of National Institutes Health (NIH).

Grant number: P41-EB022544

Principal Investigator: Georges El Fakhri