Overview

Co-platform Leader: Dr. Aaron Fenster, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, Director, Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, Professor and Chair, Division of Imaging Sciences, Department of Medical Imaging, The University of Western Ontario.

Co-platform Leader: Dr. Martin Yaffe, Tory Chair in Cancer Research and Senior Scientist, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Professor, Departments of Medical Biophysics and Medical Imaging, University of Toronto

The Imaging Translation Platform was established to address the fact that no imaging group in Ontario has all the necessary components to translate innovation through the complex pipeline from discovery to clinical translation and commercialization. This has presented a practical impediment to further progress or at least has markedly slowed progress. The Imaging Translation Platform’s goal is to increase Ontario's capability to accelerate the translation of research into the development of new imaging probes for early cancer detection into clinical practice. This process involves several critical stages, which are the foci of four platforms:

• Imaging Probe Translation Platform: the development of the infrastructure and mechanisms needed to translate new probes for testing in animals, and ultimately, for use in humans;
• Medical Imaging Instrumentation and Software Platform: the development of the instrumentation and software needed to allow investigators to validate multi-modality imaging approaches of the probes;
• Pathology Validation Platform: making histopathology more useful and reliable as a quantitative tool, and the development of techniques and technology needed to validate imaging of probes through pathology correlation;
• Imaging for Clinical Trials Platform: the development of an integrated capability to accelerate the use of imaging techniques in cancer clinical trials, which includes access to modern imaging technology and standardized imaging acquisition and analysis protocols.