Nuclear Medicine Research

The Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging has active translational molecular imaging research programs and research collaborations in the following areas:

Oncology

• Brain Tumors
  Investigators: Raymond Huang, MD, Marie Kijewski, PhD, Mi-Ae Park, PhD, Hyewon Hyun, MD, Victor Gerbaudo, PhD, MSHCA, Patrick Wen, MD, Alex Golby, MD
• Prostate cancer
  Investigators: Clare Tempany, MD, Marie Kijewski, PhD
• Mesothelioma, Lung, and Esophageal Cancer
  Investigators: Victor Gerbaudo, PhD, MSHCA, Raphael Bueno, MD, Ritu Gill, MD, Harvey Mammon, MD

Neuroscience

• Alzheimer’s Disease
  Investigators: Cynthia Lemere, PhD, Tarun Singhal, MD and Rob Bakshi, MD, Mi-Ae Park, PhD
• Multiple Sclerosis
  Investigators: Tarun Singhal, MD and Rob Bakshi, MD, Marie Kijewski, PhD
• Traumatic encephalopathy
  Investigators: Martha Shenton, PhD, Emily Stern, MD

Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Heart Disease

• Coronary heart disease
  Investigators: Marcelo Di Carli, MD, Viviany Taqueti, MD, Sharmila Dorbala, MD, Ron Blankstein, MD, Peter Libby, MD, Peter Stone, MD, David Morrow, MD
• Cardiac amyloidosis
  Investigators: Sharmila Dorbala, MD, Rodney Falk, MD, Mi-Ae-Park, PhD, Marie Kijewski, PhD, Marcelo Di Carli, MD, Robert Padera, MD, PhD
• Inflammatory cardiomyopathies
  Investigators: Ron Blankstein, MD, Marcelo Di Carli, MD, Robert Padera, MD, PhD, Mi-Ae Park, Sharmila Dorbala, Chun Kim, MD, Hyewon Hyun, MD
• Cardiovascular complications of HIV
  Investigators: Marcelo Di Carli, MD, Gail Adler, MD, Steve Grinspoon, MD, Paul Sax, MD, Viviany Taqueti, MD
• Cardiovascular complications of renal impairment
  Investigators: David Charytan, MD, Marcelo Di Carli, MD, Hicham Skali, MD, Nishant Shah, MD
• Cardiovascular complications of rheumatoid arthritis and hyperuricemia
  Investigators: Katherine Liao, MD, Seoyoung Kim, MD, Daniel Solomon, MD, Viviany Taqueti, MD
• Diabetes
  Investigators: Marcelo Di Carli, MD, Viviany Taqueti, MD, Paul Ridker, MD, Brendan Everett, MD, Samuel Goldhaber, MD, Gregory Piazza, MD, Rob Beanlands, MD (Ottawa Heart Institute), Fadi Hage, MD (University of Alabama)
• Pulmonary arterial hypertension
  Investigators: Paul Yu, MD, Mi-Ae Park, PhD, Marcelo Di Carli, MD, Aaron Waxman, MD, Jane Leopold, MD, Bradley Maron, MD

Research Facilities

All BWH Nuclear Medicine SPECT and PET/CT imaging systems and facilities are used for clinical research as well. There is an additional LSO-based Biograph mCT 40 PET/CT scanner located in the Advanced Multimodality Image Guided Operating Suite (AMIGO), which is dedicated for molecular imaging guided surgical as well as diagnostic invasive interventions, such as tumoral biopsies, microwave and cryoablation procedures.

Biomedical Imaging Research Core (BICOR)

The BICOR facility is housed in a 2,400 SF addition to the Thorn Research Tower within the BWH campus. The facility includes a cyclotron vault, radiochemistry production clean rooms, a nuclear pharmacy clean room, and control and logistics areas. A quality control laboratory is located in adjacent space in Thorn. Additional biochemistry/biological laboratories (400 SF each) for performing in vitro binding, tissue culture, and molecular studies is located in the Thorn research building, adjacent to the chemistry laboratory.

Small Animal Imaging

The Thorn research building has a dedicated small animal imaging facility (~650 SF). It houses (1) a micro PET/CT system (GE Vista animal PET/CT scanner) with dual-scintillation-layer detectors for improved uniformity of PET spatial resolution, (2) a research SPECT system (Trionix TRIAD XLT) equipped with both conventional parallel and fan-beam collimators, as well as high-magnification pinhole collimators for sub-millimeter rodent imaging, and (3) optical scanners (see Optical Imaging program below). This laboratory has dedicated space for animal instrumentation and preparation, including a sodium-iodide well-counter system, and a dose-calibrator. An adjoining room is available for surgical procedures and biodistribution studies; this room and the imaging room are both equipped with isoflurane/oxygen anesthesia machines.