"Through this center, researchers from many departments will be working to expand the application of existing scanning techniques to better understand the disease process, improve and accelerate disease diagnosis and assess the effects of treatment," says Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., dean and executive vice chancellor for medical affairs at the School of Medicine. "Scientists are also creating innovative imaging approaches that open up new avenues for insight at scales ranging from the interactions of individual molecules to the activity of complete biological systems. An essential ingredient of the BioMed 21 philosophy is the encouragement and support of collaborations between researchers from multiple scientific disciplines."

To highlight the potential impact of CCIR, Jost notes that a PET scanner for research placed in the neuro-intensive care unit at Barnes-Jewish nine years ago has led to more than 30 research grants involving 14 scientists from five different medical school departments. Jost attributes that unit's productivity to its proximity to patients at Barnes-Jewish and to clinical researchers who were able to spend time on research without departing the hospital.

"That was an investment of a few million dollars that turned into over $48 million in direct reimbursements for research costs," Jost says. "Placing a comprehensive selection of clinical imaging equipment in the hospital environment provides us with an enormous opportunity to expand our clinical research programs."

In addition to opportunities to increase federally funded research, Jost believes the CCIR will likely stimulate new scientific support from industry and new training opportunities.

"The CCIR provides a laboratory where research fellows can help manufacturers assess in real time whether new drugs, imaging contrast agents or image analysis software are working," Jost explains. "If we, for example, had a new anti-tumor drug, in the old days we could only test it by giving the drug and then waiting months or years to see who had lived and who had died. But by using modern imaging techniques we sometimes can evaluate the impact of the drug within a much shorter time period-a few days or even a few hours."

Construction of the CCIR facility cost approximately $6 million. The CCIR also includes support facilities for analysis, storage and processing of imaging data and a support staff of approximately 30 personnel.

To view the original posting and contact the school, go to their website: http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/11164.html

This News Release is reposted with thanks to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Back to HCB News

More Industry Headlines