A new advanced-imaging centre for drug development will start operations in early spring at the Mattawan, Michigan headquarters of US-based drug-development services provider MPI Research.
The Translational Imaging Center is being built in partnership with two other specialist providers in the field, inviCRO and 3D Imaging.
inviCRO is focused on optimising the value of imaging in drug discovery and development, while 3D Imaging offers radiopharmaceutical and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) imaging services in the preclinical, translational and clinical settings.
According to MPI Research, the Translational Imaging Center is the first resource for the drug-development community to combine molecular imaging, autoradiography, and animal modelling with an onsite cyclotron (particle accelerator), a vivarium and advanced image analytics.
Critical insights
Once completed, the company says, the Center will have the “unique ability” efficiently to translate preclinical into clinical data, “yielding critical insights capable of accelerating decisions, discoveries and innovation”.
Drug developers will have access to imaging, radiochemistry and informatics solutions, enabling them to make faster, better-informed decisions about the potential of drug candidates, MPI Research adds.
Single location
The partnership with inviCRO, and 3D Imaging addresses growing demand from pharmaceutical and other life-science companies for comprehensive imaging services in a single location, the company explains.
The aim, says Scott Haller, director of the Translational Imaging Center, is to approach each project as a collaborative effort with sponsors, “to help drive new therapeutics into the clinics as safely and as scientifically sound as contemporary paradigms, yet more rapidly and cost effectively”.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Translational Imaging Center was held last September at MPI Research’s global corporate headquarters in Mattawan. The cyclotron is slated for arrival and assembly at the Center this month.
