The aim of this line is to explore new fields for the application of the technologies developed for particle detection both in Nuclear and Particle physics experiments, in particular in the field of Medical Physics. This line has evolved into a well-established and acknowledged group of scientists with very important contributions in the field, ranging from device construction, through algorithms for image reconstruction up to, recently, application of accelerator physics for therapy. Fostering the collaboration with Hospitals, industries and international collaborations for the development of instrumentation is one of the key goals of this group.
The group is exploring the route of new cutting edge technologies applied to Nuclear Medicine as the possibility of using silicon sensors, with a high degree of granularity, in diagnosis devices like Compton Cameras, for single photon detection, and also in PET both for small animal PET, where high spatial resolution is needed, and human PET, where silicon probes can be used as magnifying glasses providing high spatial resolution is regions of interest. Similar concepts can be applied in therapy, in particular hadron therapy, extending the performance of in-beam PETs, for dose deposition monitoring, by adding the capability of detecting single gammas to increase the device efficiency. Imaging devices are nothing with an appropriate imaging reconstruction mechanism. This is also an important line of effort and novel, innovative algorithms have been design here to overcome problems arising from the defferent sources of image degradation.
Finally, also on the technological side, a considerable flux of knowledge transfer has started to flow in the direction of accelerator applications for therapy. This new effort is based in the experience acquired in the field from the involvement and participation in the most important accelerators in use for Particle physics at present and in the future: LHC, SPS, ILC and CLIC.
At present the main research lines and topics are the followings:
- Detection devices for medical diagnosis.
- Imaging reconstruction.
- New concepts in medical accelerators
Research groups:
