Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Funded through a series of NSERC partnership grants, Cubresa Inc. have been working with the applicants to develop technologies for pre-clinical imaging that utilize Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and PET friendly radiofrequency (RF) coils for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of small animals. To date, our collaboration has played a direct role in Cubresa being the first to market with a commercial SiPM-based pre-clinical PET product which when placed inside a 20cm MRI magnet equipped with an 11.5 cm diameter gradient can provide both PET and MR rat images simultaneously. Given this success, Cubresa now wishes to expand its research partnership with the applicants. The proposed plan is a two pronged project that involves A) development of techniques which will allow PET images to provide molecular images of the brain simultaneously with functional MRI images and B) developing high resolution MRI imaging techniques to improve quantification of PET images further. In each case, success in developing these technologies is key to Cubresa's overall product application development roadmap because each will demonstrate scientifically credible results but more importantly from the company standpoint they will demonstrate important applications of simultaneous PET/MRI, a necessary marketing tool. Cubresa aims to be the first to market with a commercial pre-clinical product illustrating the significant advantages of simultaneous PET/MRI. This partnership will allow the lab to continue to grow its expertise and capacity in this field, while providing HQP training in imaging research that is relevant to the industrial market.