Multimodality Molecular Imaging Group

Our research aims at developing new molecular imaging technologies and implementing and translating novel quantitative imaging techniques from bench to bedside to study molecular mechanisms that reflect specific aspects of the underlying tumour biology for early, reliable and accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of cancer.

Areas of active research include:

• Development and evaluation of 3D low-noise, high-resolution, non-invasive, specific and quantitative imaging of cancer with an innovative photon-counting multi-spectral x-ray imaging (x-CSI) system based on novel energy-sensitive pixelated CdZnTe detectors and one of the most advanced photon-counting readout electronics; this technique will introduce a totally new way of performing x-ray imaging
• Pre-clinical gold nanoparticle cone-beam spectral tomography imaging assessment using pixelated CdZnTe detectors and voxelised mouse models
• Further development of our powerful, realistic and versatile multi-environment software platform consisting of Monte Carlo codes (GATE/GEANT4), Finite Element Analysis (COMSOL Multiphysics), high-level SPICE models and LabVIEW environment to simulate radiation transport and photon interactions and all major processes and possible effects involved in charge signal generation and collection
• Development of an advanced 3D digital breast tomosynthesis system based on a-Se detectors for breast imaging, diagnosis and screening
• Estimation of mean glandular dose and investigation of the dosimetric effect of breast positioning with respect to the detector
• Multimodality breast imaging system which combines tomosynthesis with breast-specific molecular imaging for breast cancer diagnosis based on CdZnTe detectors
• Development of DeBRa, a sophisticated 3D anthropomorphic computational voxelised phantom
• Multiscale mathematical modelling of cell-based breast tumour growth, invasion and morphogenesis in the mammary gland
• Development of a multimodal CT/PET/SPECT/MRI system based on novel CdZnTe detectors

The research of the group has several projects on emerging medical imaging technologies and techniques ranging from the development of new detector technologies to the building of complete imaging systems for task- specific applications to visualise and characterise molecular mechanisms and structures of malignant disease. We have extensive experience in managing and implementing several hardware projects which led to prototype and/or full-scale imaging systems in close collaboration with detector and healthcare industry.

Our research interests focus on the development of innovative semiconductor and photon-counting pixellated detectors to enhance molecular sensitivity, the realisation of single and multimodal molecular and spectral imaging systems for the next generation of healthcare hardware, the development of sophisticated 3D computational anthropomorphic phantoms for dosimetric and imaging proof-of-concept studies as well as the design and performance modelling of imaging systems by combining state-of-the-art Monte Carlo and Finite Element Analysis codes.

In general, we implement a dynamic “hardware-development” approach, unique to our group, which combines a realistic and versatile multi-environment software platform with extensive experimental measurements, in an iterative exchange fashion, to refine detector design specifications, to design and optimise novel imaging systems and techniques, to carry out proof-of-concept studies before building prototype systems, to assess overall system-level imaging and dose performance and to evaluate pre-clinical and clinical systems.