Formal opening of Siemens Oxford Molecular Imaging Laboratory
The Siemens Oxford Molecular Imaging Laboratory (SOMIL), located in the Inorganic Chemistry Building, was formally opened by Michael Reitermann, President of Siemens Molecular Imaging, on January 24th 2007.
This laboratory was established as part of a £2 million research project funded by Siemens, DTI and EPSRC and involves Professor Jon Dilworth and Dr Veronique Gouverneur (Chemistry) and Professor M. Brady (Engineering). The laboratory has state of the art equipment for the handling of positron-emitting radioisotopes such as 64Cu, 18F and 68Ga used for PET imaging and also for gamma-emitting isotopes such as 99mTc widely used for SPECT images.
The facilities will permit the radiolabelling of biologically active molecules for imaging and therapeutic applications and collaborations with a number of Departments at the Medical Sciences Division are in place to carry out biological testing.
The opening of the new cancer hospital at the Churchill site with its human PET imaging facility and cyclotron will presage a major expansion in PET imaging in Oxford and the SOMIL facility will provide important radiochemistry support in terms of the development of new imaging agents.
