The aim of this service is to provide the researches with the capabilities of performing pre-clinical image studies. At the moment, the laboratory offers a PET/CT pre-clinical scanner able to obtain images for mice, rats and rabbits.

The Positron Emission Tomography, PET, technique consists of marking the molecules of a substance that is administered to the animal and allows obtaining tomographical (3D) in vivo images of the metabolic processes taking place in its interior; thus, it provides functional images. This is possible thanks to its ability to obtain the image of the distribution of the marked substance once distributed inside the animal. The Computed Tomography, CT, technique consists of measuring the absorption of X ray by the tissues of the animal and allows obtaining tomographical images of its inner structures.

The offered scanner, SuperArgus 4r, allows the users to obtain both types of images, independently or simultaneously. For the latter case, it is possible to directly correlate the processed being visualized with the organs where they are taking place. For the PET, it is possible to image marked distributions of characteristic size of one millimeter (or even little less). For the CT case, it is possible to image structures as small as 20 um