Centre for In Vivo Imaging

Multi-modality Translational Imaging

Multi-modality Translational Imaging

We are the co-ordinator for the BIOIMAGE-NMD project, which is an FP7 funded translational research programme.

The aims of the project are to develop and evaluate imaging biomarkers for basic in vivo research and clinical trials in the neuromuscular disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Imaging has an essential and central role in the evaluation of patients with rare diseases. Non-invasive outcome measures that demonstrate early response to novel therapies are urgently required. They are of particular importance in rare diseases where large scale conventional clinical trials are unfeasible.

BIOIMAGE-NMD programme

The BIOIMAGE-NMD programme combines expertise across our imaging portfolio to address this important problem.

Within our radiotracer production facilities we are developing 18F tagging of antisense oligoneucleotide (AON) therapeutic agents created by our research partner, Prosensa Therapeutics.

These radiolabelled drugs will enable PET drug biodistribution studies to be conducted in vivo using our pre-clinical PET facilities.

We are developing new diffusion MRI imaging techniques to non-invasively image muscle fibre damage. These are first evaluated in transgenic muscular dystrophy models using our preclinical MRI scanner.

We are translating the new techniques into tools for clinical imaging to underpin the clinical trials in patients already underway using our 3T scanners.

The programme has nine academic and SME partners across Europe.