The Experimental Multimodal Imaging Service (SIME) is a facility of Preclínical Multimodal Imaging for small animals. It is located in the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas CSIC-UAM (IIB), and is part of the Multimodal Biomaging Module for small animals integrated in the INNOTEK platform of the Academic Excellence Campus CSIC-UAM: Advanced techniques for the generation and characterization of animal models.
Given the characteristics of the materials employed, SIME is part of the Radioactive Installation of the IIB, authorized by the Dirección General de Industria y Energía of the Consejería de Economía e Innovación Tecnológica, with authorization number: IR/M-423/89.
SIME has a trimodal scanner INVEON, (microCT-microSPECT-microPET) from SIEMENS for small animals (mice and rats), the first one installed in Spain. The INVEON system, due to its characteristics, provides high quality PET, SPECT and CT data.
Molecular imaging techniques, like PET (Positron Emission Tomography) and SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography), allow visual representation, characterization and quantification of biological processes at cellular and molecular level in living organisms without perturbing the system under study. For this purpose, an appropriate radiotracer is administered to the animal. X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) provides morphological (anatomical) information, complementary to the metabolic data supplied by microPET-microSPECT.