The PET and µPET Core Facility provides the center with the capability to apply nuclear imaging techniques to study phenomena at the tissue, cellular, and genetic levels. Positron Emission Technology (PET) is becoming increasingly important as a fundamental tool in biology that provides high-resolution anatomical and molecular imaging.

The PET and microPET (µPET) Facility Core supports research that allows us to study a wide range of biological processes in model systems from Projects 2, 3, and 4. This technology, using either a state-of-the-art conventional PET camera or a µPET camera, provides us with the ability to study a subject more than once, allows each subject to serve as its own control, and allows interventional strategies to be followed over time. Furthermore, studies can also be conducted in a non-invasive manner.

The µPET camera, which enables imaging at resolutions of 1 mm or less, is mobile and makes imaging skeletal muscle possible in our intensive care patients while they remain acutely ill. Further development of molecular imaging methodologies with high resolution will enable investigators to image gene expression in relevant tissues and skeletal muscle apoptosis to better understand the immuno-inflammatory host response.