Prof. Holger Grüll, scientific director/core manager

Prof. Heike Endepols, scientific director/core manager

Dr. Johannes Lindemeyer, MR physicist

Lukas Vieth, BTA

Nils Walter, PhD student

Sven Saniternik, PhD student

Prof. Holger Grüll

Prof. Heike Endepols

Prof. Alexander Drzezga

Prof. Bernd Neumaier

Prof. David Maintz

The use of the EPIC core facility is regulated by a usage regulation, which you can view here.

The usage fees are based on the DFG's flat rates in accordance with information sheet 55.04 "Guidelines for Instrumentation Usage Costs and Core Facilities". Further information on the user fees for the EPIC Core Facility can be found in the terms of use.

The software Booked Booked – Simply Powerful Scheduling (bookedscheduler.com) is currently used to reserve and book time slots. Please contact us for more information.

Operating at a field strength of 3 Tesla, the current MRI (Achieva 3T, Philips Healthcare) allows to acquire images with an isotropic resolution of 250 µm. Image acquisition time depends on resolution, field of view and signal strength. The system can be used for all in vivo characterization of small and large animal models, especially to track tumor development in a longitudinal setting as no ionizing radiation is used. Furthermore, the system is cabable to also image other elements with a suitable gyromagnetic ratio, for example Fluorine-19. As there is no F-19 present in soft tissue, fluorinated compounds can be used as contrast agents in applications related to image guided drug delivery.   

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) allows to visualize and quantify uptake and biodistribution of gamma-radiation emitting radiotracers in vivo. SPECT imaging in small animals requires high resolution as well as sensitivity, which can be accomplished with dedicated systems, such as the NanoSPECT/CT (Mediso). This system employs multi-pinhole collimators projecting multiple overlapping images onto four scintillation cameras. During a subsequent reconstruction, a single three-dimensional image is recalculated, boosting the overall sensitivity. Depending on the pinhole diameter, resolutions of less than 0.5 mm can be achieved however at the cost of increased acquisition time. For the anatomical reference, the system is equipped with a microCT unit with a resolution of about 80 µm.

Acquisition of consecutive SPECT scans allows to image pharmacokinetic of radiolabeled compounds. For a single field of view, acquisition time can be as short as four minutes depending on the injected activity, used collimators and required resolution. The energy resolving detectors allow to simultaneously quantify and visualize biodistribution of two different radionuclides in vivo. Further, SPECT/CT imaging was successfully used to study the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of various therapeutic compounds such as peptides, antibodies, liposomes of ultrasound activatable microbubbles.

The Focus 220 (Siemens) is a Positron emission tomography (PET) scanner suitable for small animals but with a gantry large enough to accommodate also larger animal models. 18F-labeled PET tracers for various applications, including brain imaging (e.g. for visualization of amino acid transmitters or protein deposits) and cancer imaging (e.g. prostate cancer imaging) are available.

The CT scanner is a fully x-ray shielded system and allows measurement of specimens as well as small animals in vivo. The micro-focus x-ray tube has a focal spot size of 50 µm and can be operated at high voltages of either 35 kV or 50 kV with a constant current of 1 mA. The detector consists of a photo- diode array with 512 pixels of 0.45 mm x 0.6 mm. The size of the transaxial field-of-view (FOV) can be varied in three steps de- pending on the diameter of the object to be imaged. The sys- tem allowed setting FOV diameters of 30 (S), 48 (M) or 120 (L) mm. Data are acquired slice by slice through step-and-shoot half-scanning. Rotation times can be set to 4.5 sec (fast), 18 sec (slow) and 36 sec (ultra-slow). Before scanning, a digital radiogram is acquired which can cover the maximum scan length of 300 mm.  Images are reconstructed with a 480 x 480 matrix leading to an in-plane pixel resolution of 250 µm(FOV L), 100 µm (M) and 62.5 µm (S) being about half of the physically achievable spatial resolution of the scanner. For details see Stiller, W et al.  FortschrRöntgenstr 2007;179:669–675 (DOI 10.1055/s-2007-963189).

In its funding procedures, the German Research Foundation (DFG) can finance usage costs for major instrumentation and instrumentationcentres/core facilities, insofar as these correspond to project-specific additional requirements. Information on this can be found here. If you need advice on this, please contact Dr. Simona Walker (Research Funding Advisor) or Frank Jäger (Research Law Officer)

All imaging laboratories are located in building 60 (basement, nuclear medicine) within the area where radioactive samples are handled. All laboratories are also categorised as biosafety level S1. Access to the laboratories is therefore only possible after a radiation protection and biosafety briefing by the radiation protection and biosafety officers of the research group Prof Endepols, Prof Grüll or their representatives. This also applies to work that does not involve handling radioactive samples, such as MRI or microCT measurements.

The instruction always takes place on the last Friday of the month at 13:00 via Zoom and includes a multiple-choice test.

To register, please:

• For access to the laboratories in the basement building 60 (laboratories for preclinical imaging), please download the forms for the radiation protection briefing  and the biosafety briefing and sign them.
• For access to the S1 laboratories of the research group of Prof. Grüll, LFI, 4th floor, download the following file and sign it.
• Rename the files according to the following scheme: jjjj-mm-tt_name of the file_last name_first name.pdf. Use the date of the instruction. Send the signed forms as separate attachments to Labore-RSBS-Geb60-UG(at)uk-koeln(dot)de. Do not combine scans into one file!
• Deadline is Wednesday 12:00 noon before the Friday of class.
• Forms and emails received after this deadline will not be considered for classes until a full month later.

Classes always take place on the last Friday of each month at 1.00 pm:

https://uni-koeln.zoom.us/j/91068136191?pwd=UUF5NGNYaGNYVjFTdmlqV1pTcDBDdz09
Meeting-ID: 910 6813 6191
Password: 296885