IMAGING RESEARCH CORE FACILITY

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The Case CCC Imaging Research Core Facility provides researchers with state-of-the art facilities and the services for in vivo imaging. The facility provides cancer researchers its extensive imaging research infrastructure and expertise of -26 imaging faculty in Radiology, Chemistry, Physics, and Biomedical Engineering to enhance and expand ongoing research efforts. The advent of dedicated small animal imaging systems allows the integration of in vivo physiologic measurements with microscopic measurements of structural and cellular activities. The collaborative, multidisciplinary approach provides a wealth of new information in elucidating the complex relationship between structure, genetics, replication, and function in genetically manipulated animal models of disease that have been used widely in cancer research with grounding in cellular/molecular-level understanding. The Imaging Research Core Facility is the centerpiece of the Case Center for Imaging Research, which encompasses all aspects of the much broader imaging research program at Case/UH. This includes molecular imaging, small animal imaging, and clinical imaging thrusts. The Core provides services to Case CCC members from 7 of 8 research programs, with members from the Imaging Program and Cancer Cell Signaling utilizing the Core's services the most. The Core has been actively involved in studies of the glioma microenvironment where novel cryo-imaging techniques demonstrated migration and dispersal pathways in vivid three-dimensional detail. In addition, fluorescence imaging systems in the Core were used to discover that while activation of EphA2 with its ligand ephrin-AI inhibits chemotactic migration of glioma and prostate cancer cells, EphA2 over-expression promotes migration in a ligand-independent manner.