Expert users are already taking full advantage of the imaging and medical beamline’s current capabilities, and work is well underway to extend our imaging and medical beamline facilities.

Installation of the extended imaging and medical beamline (IMBL) is scheduled to commence later this year, with full beamtime available in 2011, and clinical research commencing in 2012.

The IMBL team of Daniel Häusermann, Chris Hall, Anton Maksimenko and Raphael Serduc (joint appointment with MIMR) is managing the development of the beamline with assistance from a clinical advisory panel, beamline advisory panel, and international advisers and collaborators.  Their expertise and linkages with relevant facilities all over the world has been crucial in driving the construction of this unique facility.

The beamline is being constructed to provide high-resolution imaging of cells, tissues and tumours, enable cell tracking using markers, and facilitate radiotherapy research. Its cardiac/cardiovascular, lung and tissue (breasts, bones and organs) imaging capabilities will allow preclinical programs to be extended to clinical research with patients. The beamline team is also developing an impressive range of computed tomography (CT) techniques for 3-D imaging.

Among the first expert users is a group from the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide. Led by David Parsons, the group’s aim is to determine the effectiveness of its cystic fibrosis (CF) airway gene transfer protocols in the airways of mice, and apply and develop phase-contrast x-ray imaging (PCXI) techniques for potential wider application in respiratory research.

Progress in creating, testing and applying new therapies to prevent or overcome CF airway disease has been limited by the absence of direct, rapid and accurate outcome measures. These are needed to determine whether a potential treatment using a genetic (or pharmaceutical) therapy is successful and persistent.

In June 2010, the Adelaide group successfully performed some pilot experiments with laboratory mice on the IMBL so they could compare the current IMBL capabilities (contrast and spatial resolution) with the facility they have been using at SPring8. These experiments were conducted in collaboration with Chris Hall during commissioning of parts of the facility. The results were “pleasing”, with the airways clearly visible in the images taken. No other non-invasive technique can visualise these important structures. CT data were collected to enable 3-D imaging, providing even better visualisation of the airway anatomy.

Caption: This x-ray image of a mouse was taken on the imaging and medical beamline. It shows important features of the structures in the trachea that transport foreign bodies out of the lungs, which is promising for future proposed research in airway imaging. Image courtesy of David Parsons, from the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide.