Image Fusion in Preclinical Applications

Claudia Kuntner-Hannes, MD, PD is a Senior Scientist at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. Initially, she studied Technical Physics where she graduated in 2000 at the Vienna University of Technology, Austria. She then entered a PhD program at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland where she was working on the evaluation of new scintillators for application in a preclinical PET scanner. Following the completion of her PhD in 2003, she continued working at CERN as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2004, she joined the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and built up the molecular imaging group in the Center for Health & Bioresources. Since 2009 she is lecturer at the Medical University Vienna (MUV) and became Associate Professor (PD) in Medical Physics in 2011. The major focus of her career has been on the application of preclinical PET imaging in various research areas. She is especially interested in methodological aspects of preclinical PET and MR imaging and pharmacokinetic modelling of PET data. York Haemisch, Ph.D., M. Sc. Eng. is the Managing Director of Direct Conversion GmbH in Munich and business Development Manager at Direct Conversion AB in Stockholm, a leading high tech company specializing in the development and production of direct converting, photon counting detectors for x-ray and other applications. He obtained his Diploma in nuclear physics at Technical University Dresden and his Ph.D. in solid state physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Würzburg. After several years in marketing and product management in the medical imaging industry he added an Executive Masters of Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania/Wharton School in 2002. During this time he started to focus on the development of preclinical imaging instrumentation and launched a first preclinical PET product with Philips Healthcare in 2003, followed from 2006 on with the development of the NanoPET/CT at Bioscan/Mediso, successfully launched in 2009. In 2010 he returned to Philips as a business development manager for the innovative digital SiPM technology. Since January 2018 he is in his managing role with Direct Conversion. His major interests are the introduction and management of disruptive technologies and the definition of appropriate product requirements. In his current position he is again helping to introduce a disruptive technology for imaging to a wide range of users in industrial, medical and research segments.

Spatial normalization and region definition in small animal brain PET based on PET, CT or MR.- Preclinical multimodality imaging and image fusion in cardiovascular disease.- MRI and CT-guided small animal radiotherapy in an orthotopic brain tumor model.- Stem cell tracking using multimodal contrast agents.- Dual modality SPECT/CT imaging techniques for evaluating biological radiotracers in mice.- Multimodality preclinical imaging in the development of therapeutics for inflammatory diseases.- Investigation of drug-drug interaction using PET/MRI.- Influence of animal handling and standardization on multi-modality imaging.- Instrumentation challenges in (S)PE(C)T systems.- Small animal imaging in oncology drug development.- Optoacoustic mesoscopic imaging of disease models.- Multi-modal preclinical imaging in oncology.