January 28th, 2011 – Utrecht, the Netherlands
MILabs, B.V. the Netherlands-based innovator and manufacturer of preclinical SPECT/PET/CT imaging devices used in biological and pharmaceutical research today announce the completed installation and full operation of the MILabs U-SPECT-II/CT system at the Bindley Bioscience Center in Discovery Park at Purdue University, known for its unique infrastructure to support interdisciplinary research.
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Philip S. Low, PhD, specifically chose the U-SPECT technology because it will allow very detailed images of where processes in tumors take place and where anti-cancer agents end up. Only a few companies in the world are able to provide these very complex instruments for small animals, of which MILabs is one. Therefore the choice fell on MILabs’ state of the art equipment that provides a much better image resolution than any other system available at this moment.
“This advanced, state-of-the-art instrument will allow Purdue life science researchers to be able to take a snapshot in time to monitor the progression of disease and any therapeutic effect in a living animal,” said Philip S. Low, the Ralph C. Corely Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue. “Importantly, this also provides researchers working with the Bindley Bioscience Center a sophisticated instrument that provides a specificity that you can’t achieve with other current technology.”
Low said the imaging tool will help Purdue researchers develop new diagnostic solutions and therapies for a wide spectrum of diseases, specifically in the areas of cancer, diabetes, depression and cardiac problems as well as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Important impulse to biological and pharmaceutical research
“It is a great pleasure to have our device in operation at Purdue, being used by highly distinguished researchers such as Professors Low and Liu and their research teams. I look forward to upcoming discoveries by Purdue scientists and their collaborators”, says Professor Frederik Beekman, CEO/CSO of MILabs. “MILabs U-SPECT-II/CT will be applied to a broad range of disease models such as disturbed cardiac perfusion, tumors, and neurodegenerative diseases and will give an important impulse to biological and pharmaceutical research.
The MILabs U-SPECT-II/CT system, an innovative, ultra-high sensitive micro SPECT system offers the highest resolution available on the market today, and is fully integrated with a high throughput, low dose U-CT, which is used for the fusion of anatomical images with functional SPECT images in order to obtain high precision data analysis. The U-SPECT-II delivers sub-half mm resolution, ultra-fast dynamic and multi-channel molecular imaging capabilities that will advance many areas of biological and pharmaceutical research.
More information:
About MILabs: ‘Providing Small Details for Big Discoveries’
MILabs develops and markets premium imaging systems for preclinical biological and pharmaceutical research. MILabs was founded by Prof. Frederik Beekman, who designed the first U-SPECT, a SPECT-system for small animals with ultra-high resolution. Images made with this system were chosen as ‘Animal Image of the Year’ by the Society of Nuclear Medicine in 2004 and the U-SPECT technology received many international awards since then. Furthermore there have been several scores of new developments that drastically improved performance and user friendliness. This marked the start for the development and the marketing of a professional line of imaging systems designed by MILabs. The company’s first commercial breakthrough came in 2007, and since then MILabs has shown very rapid growth. Most recently MILabs introduced VECTor, which stands for Versatile Emission Computed Tomography (simultaneous sub (half) mm SPECT and PET). This technique is a breakthrough with regard to complete user friendliness, cost effectiveness, and opens many novel ways to perform multi-probe biological imaging.
About the Bindley Bioscience Center at Discovery Park, Purdue University
Discovery Park, developed on about 40 acres of the West Lafayette, IN campus, is a major part of Purdue University’s emphasis on interdisciplinary research which has meanwhile grown into a $500 million complex. The Bindley Center, houses NIH-funded research exploring proteomics of cancer biomarkers. The Center’s technology, state of the art labs and research expertise have sparked life science and bioscience collaboration with regional, national and international industry partners.
Sources:
Philip Low, 765-494-5273, [email protected]
Aaron Taylor, 765-496-3148, [email protected]
Frederik Beekman, [email protected]
Related Websites:
MILabs B.V. Direct link
Bindley Bioscience Center. Direct link
Bindley Imaging Facility. Direct link
Discovery Park. Direct link
