Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Lurie Family Imaging Center (LFIC) opened on April 27, 2009 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its home in the Marine Industrial Park on the South Boston waterfront. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and State Senator Jack Hart joined other local and scientific leaders to celebrate the event. “I want to thank Dana-Farber for their commitment to the spirit of discovery” said Mayor Thomas Menino at the ceremony. “While we've all had different experiences with cancer, there's one thing we can all agree on: fighting cancer is a team effort. I also want to thank Dana-Farber for working with the team at the Boston Redevelopment Authority to realize the benefits of locating in the Marine Industrial Park.”
The Center was established with donor funds from Nancy Lurie Marks and the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation.
The Lurie Family Imaging Center is the pre-clinical arm of the Center for Biomedical Imaging in Oncology (CBIO). The LFIC is a state-of-the-art 14,000 square feet preclinical imaging facility that provides investigators with access to all major pre-clinical imaging and therapeutic modalities as well as upcoming radiochemistry technologies, including:
- Positron emission tomography (PET)
- Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Computed tomography (CT)
- Ultrasound (US)
- Optical imaging (bioluminescence--BLI--and fluorescence--FLI-imaging)
- Imaging guided radiation therapy (IGRT)
The interdisciplinary in vivo translational studies conducted at the LFIC focus on cancer, with an emphasis on molecular, functional, and anatomical imaging combined with quantitative metrics based on specific mechanisms of tumor biology, such as:
- Detection of primary tumor and whole body metastases (solid and liquid tumors)
- Multimodality imaging of cancer
- Assessment of novel cancer therapeutics and go/no-go decision (co-clinical trials)
- Pharmacodynamic endpoints of drug effects on target, pathway, and downstream biological processes
- Early assessment of drug resistance
- Development of novel imaging probes and strategies
The LFIC has expertise and access to a large panel of relevant cancer disease models developed at DFCI and associated Hospitals and Institutes:
- Syngeneic mouse model
- Human cancer cell line-based xenograft
- Patient-derived xenograft (PDX)
- Genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs)
LFIC’s technical and research scientist staff offer a full range of services--from study design and execution to data analysis and reporting--to facilitate longitudinal preclinical studies, including establishment of tumor models, drug treatments, radiotherapy, and assessment of imaging and conventional study endpoints.
Together, the LFIC and the adjacent Molecular Cancer Imaging Facility (MCIF) provide complete support for the development of novel radiotracers and radioligands for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, including molecule design and synthesis, image acquisition and analysis, biodistribution and efficacy studies.