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Australian National Total Body PET Facility
A unique national capability for whole-body, ultra-high sensitivity PET/CT imaging
The Australian National Total Body PET Facility is Australia’s first open-access facility with dedicated research capacity. The Facility is the result of a partnership between the University of Sydney, the National Imaging Facility (NIF) and the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD).
Total Body PET technology is an extraordinary leap forward in medical imaging research. With its ability to capture a comprehensive view of the entire body, Total Body PET imaging can offer unprecedented insights into the complexities of human physiology and disease progression.
From unravelling molecular pathways to investigating treatment responses, the Australian National Total Body PET Facility's state-of-the-art imaging platform unleashes unparalleled research opportunities in neuroscience, oncology, cardiology, inflammation, drug discovery and paediatric imaging.
The imaging platform for this facility is the Siemens Biograph Vision Quadra. It is flagship infrastructure within Sydney Imaging and the National Imaging Facility network.
It offers a 106cm axial field-of-view, enabling the acquisition of dynamic data from the entire body (vertex to mid-thighs) with high spatial resolution. The long axial field of view, coupled with best-in-class time-of-flight performance leads to an extremely high effective sensitivity, allowing unprecedented image quality with faster scans and reduced radiation burden.
Scanner specifications
Crystal size |
3.2 x 3.2 x 20 mm |
Detector ring diameter |
82 cm |
Energy window |
435-585 keV |
PET axial field of view |
106 cm |
PET transaxial field of view |
78 cm |
Image plane spacing |
1.65 mm |
CT slices |
128 |
CT minimal slice spacing |
0.5 mm |
Bore length with CT |
230 cm |
The Australian National Total Body PET Facility is located in the Nuclear Medicine department at Royal North Shore Hospital. It operates under an equal time-share arrangement for clinical use and academic research.
- Access to the research allocation is managed by Sydney Imaging as an open-access research facility, with projects being assessed on the basis of scientific meric according to NIF/NCRIS principles.
- New projects can be submitted anytime throughout the year, after an initial consultation with the NIF Fellow, via our 'Access the PET scanner' online form
- All new projects need to be endorsed by the Facility following an assessment by a Scientific Review Panel for scientific merit and technical feasibility
Download our workflow visualisation to see how to access the facility for research.
Sydney Imaging, in collaboration with technical staff at Royal North Shore Hospital and academic staff within NIF, is pleased to offer assistance with the following services:
- Access to routinely available radiotracers
- Human and large animal PET/CT imaging
- Clinical phase I-IV imaging studies
- Study design and image analysis
- Pharmacokinetic modelling, metabolite analysis
- Synthesis and development of novel radiotracers and radiopharmaceuticals (available soon)
Technical support
It is important to highlight there are multiple levels of support in place to facilitate research studies. While the NSLHD will provide technical staff to operate the scanner, the University and NIF jointly fund staff to assist with research operations and provide technical support and advice to researchers. A NIF Facility Fellow is available to provide support regarding logistics, budgeting, study design and data analysis.
Small amounts of funding are available under our Pilot Study Seed Funding Scheme to enable the collection of pilot PET data in support of competitive grant applications. The scheme is intended to fund radiopharmaceutical costs and other project costs, sufficient to provide compelling evidence of feasibility.
See Pilot Study Seed Funding Scheme guidelines.
How to apply
You can apply for the Pilot Study Seed Funding Scheme when you submit a project for endorsement via the 'Access the PET scanner' project submission form. A single form submission covers both purposes.
Sydney Imaging offers radiochemistry capabilities at the Brain and Mind Centre. Our lab is equipped with two hot cells, a radiation fume hood, radio-HPLC analysis, a gamma counter, and the Flexlab synthesis module, enabling sophisticated radiolabelling of various molecules and peptides with 18F. For smaller-scale projects, we also offer manual radiolabelling. A key feature of our facility is the 68Ga generator, which provides a consistent and substantial source of activity, ensuring efficient and timely radiolabelling and research. Our capabilities extend to in-vitro studies, allowing for the evaluation of newly developed compounds on cells prior to animal studies, thus bridging the gap between pre-clinical research and clinical application. We currently work with 18F, 64Cu, 68Ga, and 11C isotopes.
About the Australian National Total Body PET Facility
The Australian National Total Body PET Facility was established in 2023 through a $15-million partnership between The University of Sydney, Northern Sydney Local Health District and the National Imaging Facility, supported by the Commonwealth Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
Under the partnership agreement, the Total Body PET system will be located at Royal North Shore Hospital and its capacity will be shared equally between clinical use and open-access research use. Access to the system for research purposes is managed by the University through its Sydney Imaging Core Research Facility.
Examples of Total Body PET imaging
Georgios Angelis
Total Body PET National Imaging Facility Fellow
Details
Contact Georgios to discuss your Total Body PET research project.