The Yale PET Center presents
PET Talks
Seminars By and For PET Users
Preclinical PET/CT Technology Development
and Applications: A Pathway to Better
Performance in Clinical Molecular Imaging
Roger Lecomte, PhD
Professor, Dept. Nuclear Medicine, Radiobiology
Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
Scientific Head, Sherbrooke Molecular Imaging Center
Director, Medical Imaging Axis, CRCHUS
Monday December 7, 2015
12 noon (Please arrive early for lunch)
Brady B131 Auditorium, 310 Cedar St.
Abstract:
Preclinical PET plays an important role in biomedical research by enabling in vivo
investigation of molecular processes in animal models.
The same assays can eventually be translated into
powerful diagnostic tools for guiding therapy and
assessing treatment outcome in clinical trials and
clinical practice. PET imaging in rodents raises special
challenges due to the small size of animal organs and
the sensitivity required to measure rapid dynamic
processes in real time. These issues have been
addressed through a variety of creative solutions.
While the theoretical limit of spatial resolution can
nearly be reached with current detector technology,
further gains in sensitivity (by an order of magnitude
or more) can still be foreseen through technological
http://tauruspet.med.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/PET_Talks!_Season_4
breakthroughs. One such leap forward is time-offlight acquisition at the ultra-high time resolution (<
100 ps) required for mouse imaging. Another significant progress would be the introduction of photoncounting CT to provide not only attenuation data, but also an index of tissue composition. In this
presentation, developments of the preclinical PET instrumentation will be reviewed together with some
examples of applications and recent advances of the PET technology will be presented highlighting the
significance for applications in clinical imaging.