Vision Quest
Imaging research uses the most advanced tools to study genetic
and cellular interactions that may be used to treat cancer, cardiovascular
and neurological diseases.
If you can’t see it, you can’t study it.
That could be the motto of the Indiana Center of Excellence in
Biomedical Imaging (IN-CEBI). With an eye on the future, the center’s
researchers are devoted to developing better imaging technologies
and imaging agents to study, diagnose and improve patient health.
Located in Research II, the center supports interdepartmental and
other IUSM research activities.
There was little in the way of imaging research support services
at IN-CEBI before Director Gary D. Hutchins, PhD, joined the faculty
in 1992. Dr. Hutchins, vice chairman for research in the Department
of Radiology and the John W. Beeler Professor of Radiology, directs
his principal research to quantify biological processes in vivo
as they apply to the cardiac autonomic nervous system and its disruption
in disease, cancer cell growth and death, and the brain’s
response to sensory, cognitive or pharmacologic stimulations.
Over the past decade, physiologic-based imaging techniques have
been incorporated into numerous research programs through the collaborative
efforts of Dr. Hutchins and his colleagues in the IU Department
of Radiology with individual program investigators in cancer, cardiovascular
and neuroscience research. Those efforts have resulted in the incorporation
of imaging in 160 grant awards or contracts. The total funding for
these awards is approximately $58 million.
The center has the latest imaging tools, including PET (positron
emission tomography), PET/CT (which combines the in vivo precision
of PET with the anatomical accuracy of computed tomography), 3 Tesla
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), an angiography suite for the development
of minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic methods for vascular
disease and cancer, as well as small animal imaging scanners designed
and built at the center.
“Among the valued amenities of the IN-CEBI are its patient
imaging suites, which give us ample space for clinical trials of
the radiopharmaceuticals developed in our labs and the newly opened
Biotechnology Research and Training Center near the IUSM campus,”
Dr. Hutchins says. “Our researchers are developing new imaging
agents for PET and CT to detect and evaluate cell growth and death.
This enhances early detection of and treatment of diseases and gives
us a better look at the biochemical processes of the brain and body.”
Within the confines of Research II and the BRTC, are a patient
imaging suite, chemistry labs to develop radiopharmaceuticals for
clinical and research use and an instrumentation facility to develop
new imaging technology.
The center was made possible by nearly $28 million in grants and
internal university support. Grants from Indiana’s 21st Century
Research and Technology Fund, the National Cancer Institute and
Lilly Endowment, Inc., have been awarded to support center activities.
Seed funding and space for the program were contributed by the IU
Department of Radiology and the School of Medicine.
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