RETIMAGER

project

Real Time Molecular Imager With Unsurpassed Resolution.

There is no alternative to precision medicine to fight the exponential increase in chronic disease and conditions, such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and to improve cancer survivorship rates.

RETIMAGER will contribute to the earlier and more precise diagnosis, with smaller radiation doses to the patients through increased detectability and quantitative accuracy.

Over the last decades, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) has been firmly established as the predominant molecular imaging technique due to its unmatched sensitivity and capability to address many different metabolic processes. However, there is huge room for improvement, as current clinical PET scanners are limited to spatial resolutions higher than 2.5 mm and temporal resolutions longer than 5 seconds. This hampers applications of PET for preclinical research and clinical diagnosis in small tissues or lesions and precludes real-time reconstruction of metabolic images. RETIMAGER is a proposal for a molecular imaging system with a ten-fold spatial and temporal improvement on the reconstructed image with respect to current PET devices. This will not only boost the quantitative performance, but it will enable new applications in cardiology, vascular oncology, oncology, neurology, and other areas.

0.25 mm

High expected spatial resolution

20%

High expected detecion sensitivity

300 ps

Excellent Time Of Flight resolution

0.01 s

Very good arterial phase resolution due to very short time frames

How

Overall approach

A clear goal with a clear strategy

We will achieve our goal by developing smart radiation detectors with non-conventional geometries that combine the advantages of both pixelated and monolithic detectors, the two dominant and seemingly incompatible technologies employed in PET scanners. Our new scanner will provide 0.25 mm pixel resolvability with time frames as short as 0.01 sec. By aggregating these blocks in a unique gantry self-adapting to the geometry of the field-of-view, RETIMAGER will achieve an unprecedented increase in sensitivity and in in vivo real-time imaging with submillimeter resolution. We will pair it with high-throughput data processing and AI tools to assess with a single tracer both perfusion and metabolism in preclinical and clinical models. In the long run, RETIMAGER’s faster, lower dose, and less invasive molecular imaging technology will become a game-changer for understanding disease processes by unveiling new accurate image-based quantitative biomarkers, taking scientific and healthcare stakeholders a step closer to personalized precision medicine.

Look at our project objectives

A full set of technological, commercial, social and end-user oriented objectives.

Keep updated !

Check our project progress and results.

Social and economical impact

Facts

2019

17.9 million

People died from cardiovascular diseases

2020

10 million

People died because of cancer

2021

8.8%

Precision medicine market growth rate

2026

€100 billion

Estimated precision medicine market

Work structure

Project implementation is organised around seven  different work packages.

During the 42 months of the project, we will combine technical advances with preclinical and clinical evaluations to become the RETIMAGER PoC. The project comprises five technical Work Packages and two additional ones dedicated to Dissemination & Communication and to proper Project Management.

Progress per Work Package

WP1: Vertex identification and image reconstruction
60%
WP2: High-throughput data acquisition and system interfacing
45%
WP3: Anatomy-adaptive system architecture
29%
WP4: Validation of RETIMAGER tool and preclinical testing
30%
WP5: Clinical Exploration
29%
WP6: Dissemination and Outreach
29%
WP7: Project management
29%

Meet our multi-disciplinary consortium, highly experienced in different fields

A great group of teams to achieve great results

UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID

UC3M

UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID

GFN-UCM

FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM JULICH GMBH

FZJ