The Functional Imaging Department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is involved in developing advanced positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems with capabilities beyond those currently envisioned for commercial implementation. The purpose of this research is to apply new technologies to the study of atherosclerosis, heart disease, aging, neurological and psychiatric diseases, and cancer. The joint approach of new technologies and experimental physiology is applied to medical science problems by a team of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer scientists, physiologists, and research physicians devoted to development of quantitative methods of experimental medical science. Autoradiography, and tracer studies in animals are also used, in addition to the noninvasive methods of nuclear medicine and MRI. There is a major emphasis on mathematical modeling and statistical analyses.
Early results of this instrumentation work included the first
demonstration of the clinical usefulness of the Anger camera and the
tomoscanner. More recently, quantitative reconstruction
algorithms, new compartment modeling methods, and
statistical models of dynamic PET have been developed.
A commercial PET scanner and a state of the art commercial SPECT scanner
are used to conduct clinical studies in epilepsy, Alzheimers disease,
schizophrenia, coronary artery disease, brain tumors, breast tumors and
prostate tumors.
Ron Huesman,
RHHuesman@lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
One Cyclotron Road, #55-121
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone: (510) 486-4062
Fax: (510) 486-4768