Cancer Functional Imaging

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The purpose of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) Cancer Functional Imaging
(CFI) Shared Resource (SR) is to provide comprehensive preclinical molecular and functional imaging
infrastructure and expertise in multimodality imaging of cancer to support the preclinical imaging research
needs of Center members. The original facility in the Miller Research Building houses a 9.4T MRI/S scanner
for magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, an intravital Olympus multiphoton microscope with in vivo
imaging capability, a SuperArgus PET-CT scanner, a Vector SPECT scanner, and a Gamma Medica SPECT-
CT scanner for nuclear imaging, optical imaging scanners (including an IVIS Spectrum and an LI COR near
infrared scanner) and an ultrasound scanner. A state-of-the-art satellite facility in the SKCCC Cancer Research
Building II (CRBII) in the lower basement opened in 2019 to house a simultaneous preclinical 7T PET-MR
scanner. A photoacoustic imaging scanner, operational since November 2020, was also installed in CRBII-
LB03 through an NIH High-End Instrument award. The CRBII-LB03 facility has allowed a much-needed
expansion with new imaging equipment to maintain this SR as a state-of-the-art facility. It also is in close
proximity to the newly installed mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) Rapiflex MALDI TOF/TOF scanner of the
Mass Spectrometry Molecular Imaging and Multi-Omics SR, allowing investigation of the relationship between
the in vivo imaging data and information provided by MSI. Because many of the imaging techniques are
translatable to humans, imaging data generated through this SR can be used to develop translational
applications in humans.
Zaver Bhujwalla, Ph.D., is the Director of the CFI SR. She also is Program Co-Leader of the SKCCC
Cancer Molecular and Functional Imaging (CMFI) Program and the Director of the Division of Cancer Imaging
Research in the Department of Radiology and Radiological Science. Dr. Bhujwalla has an outstanding track
record in molecular imaging applications in cancer. The two Associate Directors, Martin Pomper, M.D., Ph.D.,
and Dmitri Artemov, Ph.D., are well-known investigators who played a key role in the establishment of
molecular imaging at The Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Pomper directs the Division of Nuclear Medicine and
Molecular Imaging. He is also Co-Leader of the SKCCC CMFI Program.
SKCCC Managed Shared Resource
Reporting Period: January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020

Grant Number: 5P30CA006973-62
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Zaver Bhujwalla