University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

University of Manchester Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre (WMIC), University of Manchester Centre for Clinical Neuroscience

[Scientific staff | Publications within DiMI | References]

Group Description

The University of Manchester Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre (WMIC) is an international Centre of Excellence created to advance the treatment of cancer and brain disorders using PET based molecular imaging. It has been designed on past experience using PET based Molecular Imaging and has provided the unique opportunity to design, from a clean piece of paper, a centre that fosters multi-disciplinary activity across clinical and non clinical areas and growth therein for the benefit of understanding and developing new clinical treatments. The WMIC is part of the University of Manchester and is housed in the new purpose designed, stand alone building. It has links to several hospitals in Manchester, in particular Salford Royal Hospital Trust – Hope Hospital for clinical neuroscience and Christie Hospital for cancer studies. The Centre is to function as a hub for inter-disciplinary activity across the university, integrating the physical, biological and medical sciences.

To achieve the aim of becoming a world leader in the use of molecular imaging to advance the understanding and treatment of human cancers and brain disorders, the WMIC has invested in a range of state-of-the-art equipment, including:

  • A Quad HIDAC Camera for pre-clinical studies which has demonstrated a spatial resolution of 1.0 mm.
  • A GE PetTrace cyclotron which is already producing ‘world record’ yields of radioactivity.
  • Fifteen Von Gahlen synthesis hot cells, four dispensing hot cells and six shielded low-level activity enclosures.  
  • Eight of the synthesis cells along with four of the dispensing cells have been installed in an aseptic manufacturing (GMP) suite that is to be committed to the production of labelled compounds for human application.
  • For clinical studies, the Centre has installed a Hi REZ PET/CT scanner from CTI and a High Resolution Research Tomograph (HRRT) Brain Scanner from CPS/CTI.  Both of these scanners are dedicated for research.

The WMIC believes in truly inter-discliplinary working and some of the world experts in the different aspects of PET are based here. Key staff have been appointed in the areas of molecular imaging, oncology, clinical neuroscience, molecular neuroimaging/psychology, and radiochemistry. Please visit the website for further information www.wmic.manchester.ac.uk.

The WMIC has close collaborations with international research groups (EU-Groups involved in NEST-DD, EMIL-CANCER, and BioCARE).

The University of Manchester neuroscience programme is comprised of two principal elements - basic neuroscience (Faculty of Life Sciences) and clinical neuroscience (Faculty of Medical & Human Sciences).  Clinical neuroscience is based at Hope Hospital, Salford and incorporates research into Neurodegeneration and neuroplasticity, Pain, stress and mood disorders, and Cognition, language and psychosis.  Basic neuroscience is part of the faculty of life sciences and incorporates research into Neural Injury and Repair, Neuroimaging, Sensorimotor neural coding, Signalling in the nervous system and Vision sciences. Centre status was conferred on the clinical neuroscience programme by the University of Manchester in 2005.  The major function of the Centre for Clinical Neuroscience is to be a network to bring people together from across the Faculties.  There are around 120 researchers who have signed up to the network and this is expected to grow.
The Centre for Clinical Neuroscience is a member of the North West Neuroscience Research Partnership. The main purpose of the Partnership is to respond to the current and future neuroscience research activities of the region in a co-ordinated manner so that the full potential of the large patient population can be realised. Three NHS organisations are involved in the Partnership: Hope Hospital, Preston Royal Hospital, and the Walton Centre in Liverpool. The Universities of Manchester, Liverpool and Central Lancashire form the academic centres of the network.