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Radiology Research Labs

• CAMRIS
  
  The CAMRIS (Committee for Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy) Committee works to establish policies and procedures for the research use of MR Scanners within the Department of Radiology. It's two-fold mission is to review proposed research protocols involving human or animal study

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• CACTIS
  
  CACTIS works to establish policies and procedures for the research use of Computed Tomography (CT) scanners within the Department of Radiology. Our mission is to oversee proposed research protocols involving human or animal studies. This process has two major goals.
  
  1. To ensure all research performed on the CT scanners comply with CACTIS and University policy and Federal Regulations.
  2. To determine that CACTIS can maintain the resources to carry out each research protocol: including personnel, software, hardware and scan time.

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• Cardiovascular Research Group
  
  The Cardiovascular Research Group develops and applies novel MR imaging in analysis tools for the study of cardiovascular function and flow.

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• Center for Functional Neuroimaging
  
  The Center for Functional Neuroimaging provides support for functional neuroimaging research at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to providing administrative support for initiatives, the CfN will advance technical capabilities for functional neuroimaging and provide technical support for functional neuroimaging users through committees and mailing lists comprised of members with specific expertise.

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• Gee Lab
  
  Gee Lab website pending. Check back for updates.

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• Laboratory of Molecular Imaging
  
  The Laboratory of Molecular Imaging are the key organizers of animal imaging on campus. The intruments that we basically administer are the animal NMR instruments -- a vertical bore 9.4 T/8.9 cm Varian Anova and a horizontal bore 4.7 T/50 cm Varian Anova. The other imaging core facilities that are included in the animal imaging program are: Optical Imaging, Bioluminescence, micro-PET/SPECT, micro-CT, and ultrasound as well as the Chemistry and Molecular Biology Cores.

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• LMMRI
  
  The LMMRI (Laboratory for Multinuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging) research interests are in developing novel magnetic resonance (MR) pulse sequences and strategies for non-invasive measurement of physiological and functional parameters in pathologies such as arthritis, tumors and Alzheimer's disease.

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• Lab for Structural NMR Imaging
  
  Research of the Laboratory for Structural NMR Imaging is aimed at quantitatively characterizing tissue microarchitecture and its relationship to physiology and function by means of spatially resolved nuclear magnetic resonance in animals and humans. The current focus of the Laboratory is on the development of new methods for the quantitative assessment of metabolic bone disease by means of the MR-based "virtual bone biopsy", and new methods for the study of tissue mineralization. A second line of research focuses on the quanitification of carotid artery disease and its implications on brain perfusion. Additional projects deal with ultrahigh-resolution microscopy of neuronal architecture in spinal cord injury models as well as methods for indirect assessment of tissue microstructure by means of diffusion diffraction, anisotropic dipolar relaxation and multiple quantum coherence imaging.

• MICL
  
  The Molecular Imaging Chemistry Lab's (MICL) main focus is the development of tools for molecular imaging and photodynamic therapy.

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• Medical Informatics Group
  
  The Medical Informatics Group, the current IT infrastructure serving the Department of Radiology, consists of a high-speed corporate network interconnecting the multi-site Health System and multiple enterprise-wide information systems: an Electronic Master Patient Index (EMPI), a Radiology Information System (RIS), Voic Recognition (VR) dictation system, and a Picture Archival and Communication System (PACS). The projected PACS network will connect 200 imaging modalities spanning over four hospitals and several imaging clinics. Combined workload is around 700,000 patients per year generating 25-30 TB of new (uncompressed) imaging data per year. The PACS architecture is hybrid with a central, high-throughput, redundant DICOM archive (with 275 TB online) and distributed RAID servers (6 TB Storage Area Networks) for immediate delivery of recently acquired images, associated priors, and reports. The entire system is serviced by Siemens Medical Systems (Malvern, PA) under an integrated 8-year operational service contract. The imaging network and archives are fully compliant with the latest HIPAA requirements providing password protection, 128-bit encryption, access controls, and audit trail capabilities. The multi-layer corporate firewall and Virtual Private Network (VPN) circuits provide additional safeguards.
  
  In addition to the above mentioned infrastructure, we are also pursuing ground breaking research in the radiology informatics field. These include studies and research on film-based vs. filmless radiology, probabilistic medical records linkage across non-affiliated Institutions, data migration schemes, data mining strategies, structured reporting, computer-aided diagnostic and image processing. We are also involved in the design and implementation of patient-centric electronic medical records, diagnostic workstations/suite, utilization of digital displays (PACS) in the OR suites, and web-based distribution of images and reports to the entire Health System.

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• MIPG
  
  The Medical Imaging Section, historically known as the Medical Image Processing Group (MIPG), conducts full-time medically relevant research in imaging science and offers training to students and post-doctoral fellows. The sections's research has three primary goals:
  1. To advance the state of knowledge in the mathematical theory and computer algorithms for tomographic images reconstruction and for the three-dimensional (3-D) visualization and analysis of multidimensional, multiparametric, multimodality image data
  2. To develop transportable software systems for tomographic reconstruction and for 3-D visualization and analysis of medical image data
  3. To develop new medical applications for the methods of 3-D visualization and analysis for improved diagnosis, treatment, understanding and education of abnormalities in internal structures and in their function.

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• MMRRCC
  
  Since its inception in 1984 the NIH funded MMRRCC (Metabolic Magnetic Resonance Research and Computing Center), a Regional Resource, has made dramatic contributions to the technological advancements and biomedical impact of magnetic resonance.
  
  The center has developed four broad areas of core research. Multinuclear MR techniques, the development of improved, quantitative perfusion and diffusion imaging and its comparison with PET, MR of hyperpolarized gases and its potential for the study of pulmonary disease, novel contrast generation using zero-quantum coherences, and imaging of tissue microstructure and combining optical and MR imaging techniques for the study of neurophysiology, peripheral vascular disease, and breast cancer.

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• Pendergrass
  
  Pendergrass website pending. Check back for updates.

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• PET
  
  The PET Facility at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has three scanner rooms, a control room, a computer room, hot lab and a blood lab for sampling and counting. The PET instrumentation lab at Penn is responsible for several seminal developments in PET instrumentation.

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• Physics
  
  Physics website pending. Check back for updates.

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• Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry
  
  The Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry Section is a multidisciplinary research and education group in the Department of Radiology. The focus of the group is the development of new radiopharmaceuticals that provide diagnostic information on various organs in normal and disease states. Current research interests include developing imaging agents for CNS receptors (dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter systems), agents for imaging Alzheimer's disease, and neuronal functional imaging of the heart. Major research activity comprises a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines: drug design, organic synthesis, radiochemistry, receptor pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and physics and instrumentation of gamma imaging tomography devices.

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• Small Animal Imaging Facility (SAIF)
  
  Small Animal Imaging Facility (SAIF) is a core facility providing multi-modality radiological imaging and image analysis for small animals, mostly mice and rats, to the research community at University of Pennsylvania and surrounding institutions.

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• Section of Biomedical Image Analysis (SBIA)
  
  The Section for Biomedical Image Analysis (SBIA) is devoted to research in image analysis, including image segmentation, image registration, shape analysis, and pattern classification of medical and biological images. Areas of special interest include computational anatomy, population-based analyses in imaging studies, image modeling and analysis applied to surgical planning, and methods for small animal phenotyping from tomographic images. Large clinical research studies associated with SBIA include imaging of schizophrenia, aging and Alzheimer's Disease, brain development, effects of environmental factors and pharmachological interventions on the brain, association between brain damage and clinical deficits. Other clinical projects include biomechanical modeling of brain deformation in tumor patients, and development of statistical atlases for the purpose of finding optimal diagnostic and surgical planning approaches, with emphasis on prostate cancer biopsy and therapy. Finally, among the interests of SBIA is the application of computational anatomy methods to phenotypic analysis of micro-MR images of the mouse brain, in order to characterize spatio-temporal patterns of brain development in wild-type and neurogenetic mice. SBIA has funding from a variety of grants and contracts, mainly from NIH, but also from NSF and industry.

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• Ultrasound Research Laboratory
  
  The Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania houses a state-of-the-art Ultrasound Research Laboratory for conducting clinical and pre-clinical research. The goals of the research laboratory are:
  1. To develop new ultrasound technologies and clinical applications.
  2. To bridge the gap between technology and clinical applications.
  3. To provide ultrasound imaging resources to other research groups within the university and in other institutions.

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Collaborating Research Labs

• Mind, Religion, and Ethics in Dialogue
  
  Mind, Religion, and Ethics in Dialogue is a winner of the Templeton Research Lectures on the Constructive Engagement Between Science and Religion (2005-2008)
  
  The purpose of this research lecture series is to explore the critical relationship between the mind and spirituality. This relationship includes the study of cognitive neuroscience, behavioral genetics, religious and spiritual experiences and conceptions, issues related to love and compassion, and epistemological problems. Such scholarly pursuits hold critical importance for many fields including cognitive neuroscience, theology, philosophy, anthropology, law, bioethics, and religious studies.

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