Gamma Medica installs pre-clinical imaging system for cancer research

Gamma Medica Inc. last week completed installation of its X-SPECT pre-clinical imaging system at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for cancer research.

Specifically, X-SPECT will be used in imaging in vivo gene transfer in animal models with different types of cancer using a variety of vectors. Imaging probes also will be used to demonstrate the success of various gene therapies.

X-SPECT is Gamma Medica's second-generation MicroSPECT system, designed for use by medical researchers and drug companies that use in-vivo imaging techniques and molecular markers to speed studies of disease progression and therapy. The X-SPECT system combines the functional nuclear medicine technique - single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) -- with anatomical imaging provided by x-ray CT.

Gamma Medica says the upgraded system gantry is similar to other clinical systems, but on a smaller scale with higher resolution and features better suited to the in-vivo imaging of mice and other small animals in the laboratory setting.

Gamma Medica, along with its marketing partner Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc., sells its MicroSPECT products to bio-pharmaceutical companies, research hospitals and universities.

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