β-eye: A benchtop system for in vivo molecular screening of labeled compounds

Preclinical nuclear molecular imaging speeds up the mean time from synthesis to market, in drug development process. Commercial imaging systems have in general high cost, require high-cost service contracts, special facilities and trained staff. In the current work, we present β-eye, a benchtop system for in vivo molecular screening of labeled compounds with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) isotopes. The developed system is based on a dual-head geometry, offering simplicity and decreased cost. The goal of the design is to provide 2D, real-time radionuclide images of mice, allowing the recording of fast frames and thus perform fast kinetic studies, with spatial resolution of ∼2 mm. Performance evaluation demonstrates the ability of β-eye to provide quantitative results for injected activities lower than 1.5 MBq, which is adequate for pharmacodynamic studies in small mice.