Small Animal Imaging

Part I Role of small animal imaging : Non invasive imaging for supporting basic research.- Non invasive imaging in the pharmaceutical industry.- How to set up a small animal imaging unit.- Significance of non invasive imaging for animal protection.- Animal Models: From zebrafish to non human primates.

Part II Study planning and animal preparation: Institutional preconditions for small animal imaging.- Statistical considerations for animal imaging studies.- Animal anesthesia and monitoring.- Drug administration.

Part III Imaging modalities and probes: How to choose the right imaging modality.- How to identify suitable Biomarkers.- Concepts in diagnostic probe design.- X-ray and X-ray-CT.- CT contrast agents.- MR contrast agents.- MRS.- Hyperpolarized MRI.- Ultrasound.- Ultrasound contrast agents.- PET and SPECT.- Radiotracer I: Standard tracer.- Radiotracer II: Peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals.- Optical imaging.- Photoacoustic imaging.- Optical probes.- Multimodal imaging and image fusion.

Part IV Ex vivo validation methods:Methods for correlation between in vivo small ani-mal images and post mortem data: example brain.- In Vitro Methods for In Vivo Quantitation of PET and SPECT Imaging Probes: Autoradiography and Gamma Counting.

Part V: Data postprocessing: Qualitative and quantitative data analysis.- Guidelines for nuclear image analysis.- Kinetic modeling.- Data documentation systems.

Part VI: Special applications:Imaging in drug safety Evaluation.- Cell tracking and transplant imaging.- Imaging of metabolic diseases.- Imaging in developmental biology.- Imaging in gynecology research.- Imaging in cardiovascular research.- Imaging in neurology research I: Neuoroncology.- Imaging in neurology research II: Plasticity and cognitive networks.- Imaging in neurology research III: Neurodegenerative diseases.- Neurooptogenetics.- Imaging in oncology research.- Imaging in immunology research.- Imaging of infectious diseases.