Project description
Revolutionising imaging in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine
Current molecular imaging modalities in diagnostic and therapeutic medicine tend to be very time-consuming processes due to detector inefficiencies. To address this, the ERC-funded Si3 project intends to design and develop a groundbreaking device for molecular imaging of radioactive nuclides in the human body. Using next-generation silicon sensors to measure each photon interaction, it will explore the physical limits of efficiency and spatial resolution in medical imaging applications. The design entails a massive block of silicon built up from a vast array of sensors with high resolution in space, energy and time, and includes signal shaping and data processing. In theory, Si3 will improve detector efficiency and reduce examination time from an hour to less than a second.
Objective
This project aims to design, construct, and evaluate a novel instrument for molecular imaging of radioactive nuclides in the human body. The hypothesis is that, by using next-generation silicon sensors to measure each photon interaction and applying kinematic constraints, the incident photon direction can be calculated. Thus, we can remove state-of-the-art mechanical collimators. The main objective of this project is to explore the physical limits of efficiency and spatial resolution and evaluate the concept for this new technology in medical imaging applications.
The new instrument should improve detector efficiency by about a factor of one million, reducing examination time from an hour to less than a second. The concept aims to overcome Compton cameras' shortcomings such as complicated geometries with low efficiency, that, despite several attempts, prevented this technique from going beyond an early prototype stage.
The new sensor concept consists of a massive block of silicon built up from a multitude of sensors, with high resolution in space, energy and time and including signal shaping and data processing. The system will have orders of magnitude more read-out pixels than ever before in medical imaging. The system design and image reconstruction process are conceptually challenging, addressing several scientific problems at the component level such as pixel charge collection and capacitance, but also including image reconstruction from fragments of event circles, combinatorial problems involved with tracing each event to discern the correct order of interactions and to reject background events. Over a 10–20-year period, the technology could replace the current installed base, leading to significant impacts on adjacent research fields, such as drug development and targeted radionuclide therapy.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometry
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids
- natural scienceschemical sciencesnuclear chemistryradiation chemistry
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsphotons
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
100 44 Stockholm
Sweden