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Saturday, 04 September 2010

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Facilities

FACILITIES

PET Facility

The Boas-Marks Biomedical Science Research Center is the site of the cyclotron/PET facility. The PET
unit at The Feinstein Institute is research dedicated. Separate PET imaging facilities for clinical service delivery exist elsewhere within the North Shore-LIJ Health System. Studies are conducted on a GE Advance PET camera located adjacent to the cyclotron/radiochemistry laboratories. This scanner has 18 detector rings containing a total of 12,096 bismuth germanate crystal detectors. It generates 35 simultaneous slices 4.25 mm apart. The interplane septa is automatically retracted to switch from 2D to 3D mode in under 45 seconds with resolution of approximately 4.2 mm full width half maximum (FWHM) in each direction.

The PET facility is staffed by one physicist in charge of overall supervision of PET operations, one
physicist in charge of PET scanner quality control, a senior technologist who performs daily quality
control and maintenance operations, and two certified nuclear medicine technologists. The computer
system consists of two Sun Ultra 60 workstations, one dedicated to data acquisition and the other to
image analysis. The software is designed for ease of use and permits fast interactive generation of
time-activity curves and customized image analysis protocols. The peripherals include a 4 mm DAT
backup drive, a 2.3 GB read/write removable optical disk for image archival, a Codonics dyediffusion/
thermal color printer and a laser B/W printer. These workstations are connected via ethernet to
a computer network comprised of 16 PC Windows workstations and three Sun Workstations dedicated
to image analysis and data storage.

Cyclotron/Radiochemistry

The Cyclotron and Radiochemistry laboratories are situated next to the PET camera. The facility is
directed by Dr. Thomas Chaly and supports the activities of two radiochemists, a radiopharmacist, two
cyclotron engineers, and one technician. The facility currently houses a General Electric PETtrace
Cyclotron, an automated compact self-shielded medical cyclotron capable of producing 16.5 MeV
protons and 8.4 MeV deuterons. The high-energy cyclotron provides for a high yield [18F]-
fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) production and also other important radionuclides such as [11C], [13N], and
[15O]. A remotely operated semiautomatic processing system for the production of [15O]-H2O is mounted on the wall of the cyclotron vault. An automated [15O]-H2O injection system is located in the PET suite.

A major focus of the PET component is the development and implementation of novel spatial covariance methods for the analysis of functional imaging data acquired through investigation. This network approach utilizes regional data from PET scans to identify disease-specific patterns in blood flow and metabolism data (see e.g., Eckert and Eidelberg, The Lancet Neurol 2007; 6(10): 926-32). Investigators within the Center for Neurosciences have optimized this computational algorithm to standardize the criteria for pattern generation on a voxel level, and to assess the reproducibility of pattern expression in healthy subjects and patient cohorts (Ma et al., J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 2007;27(3): 597-605). This procedure was critical for the demonstration of network modulation during therapeutic interventions for Parkinson's disease (Asanuma et al., Brain 2006; 129:2667-78) and for the measurement of network changes with disease progression (Huang et al, Brain 2007; 130(Pt 7): 1834-46). Both these NIH projects (R01 NS 35069 and P50 NS 38370) produced novel findings based upon analytical routines that were developed, validated, and implemented within the Center.

The Center for Neurosciences has also supported the development of network markers for preclinical Huntington's disease (Feigin et al., Brain 130(Pt 11): 2858-67) and for early cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (Huang et al., NeuroImage 2007;34(2):714-23; Brain 2007; 130(Pt 7): 1834-46) and Alzheimer's disease (Huang et al., Neurobiol Aging 2007; 28(7):1062-9).

Most recently, investigators within the Center used these network tools to develop a fully automated
imaging-based algorithm for the differential diagnosis of degenerative brain diseases (Spetsieris et al.,
SPIE 2006; 6144:61445M1-12).

MRI Facilities

MRI research studies are conducted on a 1.5 Tesla GE Signa Echo Speed scanner housed in the North Shore University Hospital Department of Radiology, approximately 200 feet from the PET facility. The system is equipped with a standard quadrature head coil and is echo planar capable with a maximum gradient strength of 2.4 Gauss/cm. Phantom studies, including a diffusion sequence, are performed on a weekly basis to insure the integrity of image quality.

A major focus of the MRI component of the Center is the use of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate neurologic and neuropsychiatric populations. Center investigators have used this specialized technique to map microstructural abnormalities in the white matter pathways of clinically unaffected carriers of the DYT1 dystonia mutation (Carbon et al., Ann Neurol 2004; 56(2):283-6; Carbon et al., Mov Disorders 2007; Nov 12 [Epub ahead of print]).

The Feinstein Institute has recently acquired a research dedicated 3T MRI system, funded jointly by the North Shore-LIJ Health System and the State of New York Gen*NY*sis program. The GE Signa HDx scanner (General Electric, Milwaukee, WI) was delivered in 2007. This unit offers dramatically improved image quality and image acquisition speed and allows scientists to assess changes in the function of critical brain areas involved in disease processes, and in mapping neural connections within brain circuits.

Bioinformatics

Three staff members manage the bioinformatics and computing infrastructure of the Center, including a biophysicist with extensive experience in brain imaging analysis, a senior programmer with expertise in biomedical computing, and a data manager. The members of the Center have developed and implemented a wide variety of innovative solutions to visualize and analyze multimodality brain images from PET and MRI. In addition to providing technical consultation to investigators using our facilities, the group supports ongoing research through its long-term commitment to integrate database and analytical routines on a single common computing platform.

The computing facility is comprised a large number of PCs under Windows XP operating systems. These computers are equipped with the latest system software and accessories and can access the central database via the local intranet. There are also a series of standard software packages to perform statistical analysis such as SPSS and SAS. A dedicated state-of-the-art high performance Windows cluster system is being purchased for data archival and image analysis.

Experimental Therapeutics

The Experimental Therapeutics Unit within the Center for Neurosciences at The Feinstein Institute is directed by Dr. Andrew Feigin. The Unit is located in a 1,200 square foot space on the first floor of the Boas-Marks Biomedical Research building, directly above the PET/cyclotron facility. This unit is staffed by two nurses with experience in neurological clinical trials, and is fully equipped to conduct clinical research including patient assessments and psychophysical evaluations. The Unit has successfully conducted more than 20 clinical trials in various movement disorders and is in active use in the conduct of several studies involving PET imaging and behavioral assessments in Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Dystonia.