Located in the Veterinary Health Center, a Canon Celesteion PET/CT supports the campus research efforts to develop novel imaging tracers for the study of cancer, neurologic disease, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and plant physiology. This unit can scan animals from rats to large dogs and pigs, humans, plants, and soil samples.

The Celesteion is available for academic and commercial use.

Our Work

The Imaging Core is an essential component and tool in improving the accuracy and speed of diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

The Veterinary Health Center is also equipped with a dose calibrator and dual Shimadzu HPLC units with radiodetector for plasma/serum analysis. The center is supported by the Comparative Oncology Radiobiology and Epigenetics Laboratory, which houses a Biotek Lionheart FX automated microscope for live-cell imaging. These resources are part of the larger Linnerson Imaging Center that also houses a Canon Aquilion One 640 slice CT with 4D, cardiac gating, respiratory gating capability, and Canon 3T MRI.

Joni Lunceford, NMT, operates the scanner and coordinates these studies. Dr. Jeffrey Bryan directs the center.

Partnerships

Imaging Core equipment can also be used for research pigs, which are good for big disease models. The University of Missouri is home to the National Swine Research Resource Center (NSRRC), the only swine resource facility of its type in the Western Hemisphere.

The NSRRC is an important resource for the further investigation of a large number of human diseases.