Event-based molecular imaging

In molecular imaging the distribution of tracers can be studied in real time in humans.

Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) are the most sensitive methods to detect cancer at an early stage and a standard tool in biomedical research such as drug discovery.

Shortcomings today are the relatively high radiation dose, long time for image acquisition and limited spatial resolution.

The fundamental detector methods are based on scintillators and have been the same the last 50-years, in spite the fact that they operate many orders of magnitude below the theoretical performance limit.

If 100 000 radiactive tracer molecules are injected in a human for an examination, often less than one is actually contributing to the acquired image, while all decays are obviously contributing to the radiation dose.

In this project we propose to investigate if current equipment can be replaced by new event based instrumentation using semiconductor detectors with high resolution in time, space and energy.

This will provide constraints for each event to calculate the energy and direction of the incoming gamma ray, with a potential to improve performance compared to state-of-the-art with several orders of magnitude.

Our group have a long history in fundamental research focused on medical imaging detectors and we believe this experience will increase the chances for success.