Project description
A total body PET scanner tailored for paediatric care
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine imaging technique that uses radioactive tracers to visualise metabolic processes within the body. Despite advances, the standard whole-body PET scanners remain unsuitable for infants. The ERC-funded PHOENIX project is solving this by building a total-body PET scanner designed specifically for children. The system combines bismuth germanate (BGO) scintillator crystals – which convert gamma rays into detectable light – with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), highly sensitive light sensors that capture this signal with precision. This tracks the depth of interaction to keep images sharp (under 3 mm) while using Cherenkov light to provide high-speed time-of-flight data. A custom three-stage readout system processes these signals, vastly increasing sensitivity. By capturing small lesions and organ activity in real-time, PHOENIX will set new safety standards and transform how we detect and treat diseases in children.
Objective
PositrPositron Emission Tomography (PET) constitutes the imaging modality of excellence in nuclear medicine. Conventional whole body (WB) PET are used for both adult and pediatric studies. However, these scanners are not large enough to image the entire infant body, are not optimized in terms of sensitivity imposing the injection of high radiotracer doses and their spatial resolution is as best 3-5 mm at the center of scanner, which is not enough for visualizing small lesions. Moreover, since PET imaging requires the injection of a radiotracer compound, its use is compromised in pediatric due to radiation regulations and patient safety.
To overcome these limitations, I aim to develop an affordable high-performance, high-sensitivity total body (TB)-PET for pediatric imaging. The system, named PHOENIX, targets for a high effective sensitivity of x25-30 the one of clinical WB-PET. To achieve this goal, we propose a large axial scanner of 54.5 cm with a bore diameter of 32 cm to cover all organs of children -without becoming claustrophobic- and, thus, permitting for dynamic multi-organ studies.
For the best cost-performance tradeoff, the PHOENIX detectors would be based on semi-monolithic BGO crystals coupled to SiPMs. This design allows characterizing the light distribution profiles to retrieve photon depth of interaction information (resulting in a uniform image spatial resolution <3 mm) while simultaneously providing time-of-flight (TOF) capabilities. To offer significant TOF information, I aim to exploit the low Cherenkov light yield produced in BGO. We will implement a scalable custom readout circuit composed of 3- stages: i) signal multiplexing, ii) event classification -Cherenkov and Scintillation-, and iii) commercial ASIC adaptation for digitization.
Developing the PHOENIX scanner constitutes a major research and technological challenge. If successful, will promote PET imaging of children, improve its diagnostic capabilities, staging and response assessment.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine radiology nuclear medicine
- natural sciences physical sciences theoretical physics particle physics photons
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
- Molecular Imaging
- Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
- Total-body (TB) Pediatric PET
- Compton Kinematics
- Readout electronics: multiplexing scheme
- Semi-Monolithic Scintillators
- BGO scintillators
- Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs)
- Photon Depth of Interaction (DOI)
- Time Of Flight (TOF)
- Cherenkov and Scintillation radiation
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28006 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.