UVa researchers land money for cyclotron

From staff reports
Published: July 17, 2008

A team of researchers at the University of Virginia has received a $2 million grant to purchase a cyclotron that will help expand the university’s imaging research.

The grant from the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health was awarded to a team led by biomedical engineer Stuart S. Berr, a UVa professor of radiology and co-director of UVa’s Molecular Imaging Center.

Cyclotrons are particle accelerators used to create radioactive elements, which are important in the field of molecular imaging.

Molecular imaging seeks to visualize, characterize and measure biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels by noninvasive means. The radioactive agents gather at target areas inside humans and animals and emit a signal that can be imaged.