Nuclear Medicine

About us

The Institute of Nuclear Medicine is highly research active and one of the leading research centres for molecular imaging research in the world. We undertake research across a range a of fields reflecting the wide range of scientific disciplines and range of skills of the staff in the department. The centre covers clinical research, physics, and engineering research as well as radiochemistry and PPI research.

Our core mission is to harness the cutting edge biological research undertaken on the UCL campus, applying it to overcome the diseases affecting our patients at University College Hospital and beyond. We are committed to providing first class research, with first class staff and facilities in both research and clinical areas. The Institute of Nuclear Medicine is one of the most research active departments in Europe.

Our research

We undertake research across a range of fields reflecting the wide range of scientific disciplines and range of skills of the staff in the department. The centre covers clinical research, physics, and engineering research as well as radiochemistry and PPI research.

Equipment

The Institute of Nuclear Medicine at University College Hospital was the first UK site to set up clinical PET/CT and PET/MR services. These continue to offer excellent options for patients.

PET / CT

Our experts

Our department has the UK Training Director for Nuclear Medicine, the Chair of the SAT Nuclear Medicine committee, and is represented on Educational Committees of the Royal College of Radiologists, Royal College of Physicians, British Institute of Radiology, National Cancer Research Institute, British Nuclear Medicine Society and the European Association of Nuclear Medicine.

Selected publications

1. De Cecco CN, Ciolina M ... Ganeshan B, et al. (2016). Performance of diffusion-weighted imaging, perfusion imaging, and texture analysis in predicting tumoral response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer patients studied with 3T MR: initial experience. Abdom Radiol (NY). 2016 Sep;41(9): 1728-35.
2. Makanyanga J, Ganeshan B, Rodriguez-Justo M, Bhatnagar G, Groves A, Halligan S, Miles K, Taylor SA (2017). MRI texture analysis (MRTA) of T2-weighted images in Crohn's disease may provide information on histological and MRI disease activity in patients undergoing ileal resection. Eur Radiol. 2017 Feb;27(2): 589-597.
3. Skogen K, Schulz A, Dormagen JB, Ganeshan B, et al (2016). Diagnostic performance of texture analysis on MRI in grading cerebral gliomas. Eur J Radiol. 2016 Apr;85(4): 824-9.
4. Bhatnagar G, Makanyanga J, Ganeshan B, Groves A, et al (2016). MRI texture analysis parameters of contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images of Crohn's disease differ according to the presence or absence of histological markers of hypoxia and angiogenesis. Abdom Radiol (NY). 2016 Jul;41(7):1261-9.
5. Bousse A, Bertolli O ... Hutton BF, Thielemans K (2016). Maximum-likelihood joint image reconstruction and motion estimation with misaligned attenuation in TOF-PET/CT. Phys Med Biol. 2016 Feb 7;61(3):L11-9.
6. Bousse A, Bertolli O ... Hutton BF, Thielemans K (2016). Maximum-Likelihood Joint Image Reconstruction/Motion Estimation in Attenuation-Corrected Respiratory Gated PET/CT Using a Single Attenuation Map. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2016 Jan;35(1):217-28.
7. Erlandsson K, Dickson J, Arridge S, Atkinson D, Ourselin S, Hutton BF (2015). Magnetic resonance imaging-guided partial volume correction for positron emission tomography in PET/MRI. PET Clinics 2015.
8. Holman BF, Cuplov V, Hutton BF, Groves AM, Thielemans K (2016). The effect of respiratory induced density variations on non-TOF PET quantitation in the lung. Phys Med Biol. 2016 Apr 21;61(8):3148-63.
9. Boscolo Galazzo I, Bomanji JB, Groves AM, Fraioli F, et al. Cerebral metabolism and perfusion in MR-negative individuals with refractory focal epilepsy assessed by simultaneous acquisition of (18)F-FDG PET and arterial spin labelling. Neuroimage Clin. 2016; 11:648-57.
10. Buchert R, Kluge A, Tossici-Bolt L, Dickson J, et al. (2016)  Reduction in camera-specific variability in [123I]FP-CIT SPECT outcome measures by image reconstruction optimized for multisite settings: impact on age-dependence of the specific binding ratio in the ENC-DAT database of healthy controls. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 
11. Albert NL, Unterrainer M, Diemling M, Dickson JC, et al. (2016) Implementation of the European multicentre database of healthy controls for [123I]FP-CIT SPECT increases diagnostic accuracy in patients with clinically uncertain parkinsonian syndromes. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 
12. Meintjes M, Dickson JC, Bomanji J, et al. (2016) Comparison of rubidium-82 myocardial blood flow quantification with coronary calcium score for evaluation of coronary artery stenosis. Nucl Med Commun. 
13. Fraioli F, Kayani I, Smith LJ, Bomanji JB, et al. (2016) Positive (18)Fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Predicts Preinvasive Endobronchial Lesion Progression to Invasive Cancer. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 
14. Ciet P, Serra G ..., Fraioli F, Quattrucci S, et al. (2016). Assessment of CF lung disease using motion corrected PROPELLER MRI: a comparison with CT. Eur Radiol.
15. Skoura E, Michopoulou S, Bomanji J, et al. (2016) The Impact of 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT Imaging on Management of Patients with Neuroendocrine Tumors: Experience from a National Referral Center in the United Kingdom. J Nucl Med. 
16. Fallanca F, Kayani I, Bomanji J, et al. (2016) Diagnostic accuracy of FDG PET/CT for clinical evaluation at the end of treatment of HL and NHL: a comparison of the Deauville Criteria (DC) and the International Harmonization Project Criteria (IHPC). Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging.

Funding and partnerships

The Institute of Nuclear Medicine has collaborated with many private and non-profit organisations. These include:

Education and training

1. We are Positron Emission Tomography (PET) reference site for Siemens, GE Healthcare, Advanced Accelerator Applications / Bracco and TexRAD.
2. We run Europe's only cardiac hybrid imaging course giving Level II accreditation from the Society of Cardiovascular CT.
3. We are the only site in Europe able to train Rubidium PET to ARSAC recommendations.
4. We also run the regional cardiac CT education, the "Pan London cardiac CT". We host the PET component of the International League against Epilepsy's Advanced Neuro Imaging course which is performed within the Department.
5. We provide formal education to trainees at the University of Bologna for Prof. Fanti and to multiple sites in the Gulf through the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health and Oman Health Authority.
6. We are only one of two UK sites that train Cardiology, Radiologists and Nuclear Medicine Physicians in Cardiac PET.
7. Apart from our own three Registrars, we provide additional training for trainees from other UK Deaneries.