Research Facilities
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CURES (Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors) Headquartered at Wayne State University in the heart of Detroit, the Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) is one of a few select environmental health sciences core centers in the nation funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Grant Number P30 ES036084).
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Cyclotron and Radiochemistry Core Located immediately adjacent to the PET/CT and SPECT scanners, the Cyclotron & Radiochemistry Core houses two cyclotrons: a Siemens-CTI 11 MeV negative ion cyclotron capable of irradiating four targets (two simultaneously) and a GE PETtrace 18 MeV negative ion cyclotron capable of simultaneously irradiating 6 targets (two F18, two C11, one O15 and N13 target) with either protons or deuterons. The cyclotron laboratory is equipped with computer-controlled fully automated radiopharmaceutical production systems for producing routine positron-emitting compounds and gaseous radioactive effluent monitoring systems. The production lab is fully GCMP compliant and contains 4 hot cells and 2 new F18 modules (GE Fastlab) for the routine production of FDG. The PET Center chemistry laboratories are equipped with radio-HPLC systems with appropriate mass (ultraviolet, refractive index) and radioactivity (NaI scintillation) detectors coupled to a data acquisition and management system. A radio-TLC scanner (Berthold) is used for radiochemical analysis. Appropriate radiation monitoring equipment, including area survey monitors and hand and foot counter, are in place, including 50-square feet class-100 clean room equipped with a laminar-flow hood for the preparation of sterile components. The radiochemistry laboratory is equipped with 2 shielded fume hoods, 6 unshielded fume hoods, 2 HP COBRA gamma counters, 1 CAPRAC® -t well counter, and a VO2000 metabolic measurement system (MGC Diagnostics), as well as all the necessary standard laboratory equipment, including balances, pH meters, glassware, pipettes, etc.
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IBio Facility 
IBio consists of three floors designed for interactive engagement with open lab space surrounded by modular open seating area for staff and faculty offices. The second and third floors are identical in design with two 10,000 sq ft open wet labs surrounded by the open seating area, conference rooms and touchdown space. The first floor is similar in design, but has clinical research space together with an open atrium area and a 94 seat auditorium for conferences and seminars. Research programs from the Henry Ford Hospital System also occupy ~10,000 sq ft on the first floor, which is contiguous with our programs in Bio and Systems Engineering. The facility is adjacent to Wayne State University's technology transfer incubator TechTown and the Next Energy Technology Incubator and one block from Henry Ford Hospital System 1 Ford Place. - KCI/WSU Molecular Imaging Center
The Karmanos Cancer Institute/Wayne State University Molecular Imaging Center is located in Children’s Hospital of Michigan on the WSU School of Medicine campus. The center is an 8,800 square feet facility that houses a clinical PET/CT scanner (Siemens Vision 600), a SPECT scanner (to be installed in 2025), a shared control room, and two cyclotrons and supporting radiopharmaceutical laboratories. There are also six patient preparation rooms, a patient waiting room and reception area, a nursing station, and a patient restroom.
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Lipidomics Core Facility The Lipidomics Core Facility conducts comprehensive analysis of cellular lipids that encompass fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterol lipids, and prenol lipids; in essence the study of the lipid metabolome. Structural diversity of the lipids stemming from the multifarious combination of structural entities like the fatty acids, glycerol, choline, glucosides, isoprenoid units, etc., makes the analysis of the lipidome extremely complex. Adding to this complexity, numerous pathways involved in the biosynthesis, turnover, and metabolism make the lipid pool of the cell highly dynamic. Analysis of such a complex and dynamic metabolome not only provides important clues about signaling cascades at the cellular level but also would be an invaluable tool to study pathophysiology. Such studies are possible with the advent of sophisticated mass spectrometric techniques. Lipidomics Core Facility of the Pathology Department at Wayne State University offers an extensive array of analytical services to investigate the lipidome. The services include sample preparation, lipid identification by mass spectrometry, shotgun and LC-MS lipid profiling, LC-MS lipid quantification, and training in sample preparation methods.
- Magnetic Resonance Research Facility
The MR Research Facility (MRRF) is committed to the development of MR methods and their application in preclinical and clinical populations to better understand the nature of brain disorders and diseases. The MRRF promotes the use of MR-based methods to the WSU scientific community and supports the implementation of MR methods through education, assistance in experimental design, and data collection and analysis.
The MRRF center is equipped with a 100% research dedicated,
high-field 3 Tesla Siemens Verio whole-body human MRI scanner capable of collecting high spacial resolution anatomical MRI imagages, functional MRI or fMRI data, diffusion tensor imaging or DTI data and multi-nuclear spectroscopy or MRS data (1H and 31P) as well as echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) data. This system also has an industry leading 32-channel head coil for superior image quality.
The MRRF center is located in the Harper University Hospital, department of Radiology and is directed by E. Mark Haacke.
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Pediatric Imaging Center Two MRI systems dedicated to scanning children are available for research at the Children's Hospital of Michigan, Department of Pediatric Imaging. This includes a high-field 3 Tesla short-bore MRI system as well as a 1.5 Tesla system capable of conducting anatomical MRI, fMRI, DTI and 1H MRS experiments. Both instruments have an 8-channel head coil for parallel imaging.
- PET Center
Since January 1994, the PET Center has provided a variety of scans, both clinical and research, to patients of all ages from Michigan and abroad. The center is equipped with a combined PET and CT scanner, a PET scanner and a state-of-the-art microPET system designed for imaging of small laboratory animals.
Children's Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University, and other members of the Detroit Medical Center share this substantial resource with the community to detect seizure epileptic foci, to determine serotonin synthesis capacity in autism and tuberous sclerosis, to evaluate heart disorders and cardiac viability, and to identify malignant diseases or tumors and to monitor their therapy
The PET Center is located in the Children's Hospital of Michigan, Department of Pediatric Imaging.
In 2023, a new Siemens Vision 600 PET/CT scanner was installed. The Siemens Vision 600 PET/CT scanner represents the latest generation of PET/CT scanners, combining a PET detector ring of lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) crystals with a high-end 64-slice CT system. Each PET detector consists of four 5 × 5 arrays of 3.2 × 3.2 mm LSO crystals completely covered by a 1.6 cm × 1.6 cm array of 16 SiPMs that form an 82cm diameter detector ring with an axial field-of-view of 26.3cm. System sensitivity is 16 cps/kBq (3D mode) and the detector time resolution is 214 picoseconds. The system supports list mode acquisition, offline histogramming, and image reconstruction utilizing both TOF information and resolution recovery based on the scanner’s point-spread-function, yielding a 3.7 mm spatial resolution both transaxially and axially. For larger axial coverage scans, the Vision system supports continuous bed motion (flowmotion) and multi-pass dynamic acquisition which can be used to obtain time-activity curves for both the brain and the left ventricle, thereby allowing full kinetic modeling of brain regions using a non-invasive arterial input function. The CT sub-system consists of a STRATON X-ray source and Ultra Fast Ceramic (UFC) detectors that enable a full 64-slice acquisition and reconstruction of 192 slices using 0.1 mm reconstruction interval increment. The PET and CT systems are fully integrated using the syngo software platform which also includes AIDAN, the latest AI platform for PET scanner operation.
- Small Animal MRI Facility
The Small Animal MRI Facility is equipped with a 7 Tesla ClinScan animal MRI scanner capable of measuring tissue structure and function at the level of microns. This system is designed to further facilitate translational research from 'mice to human' in the field of preclinical and molecular imaging by using a Siemens' interface that allows a direct and fast transfer of preclinical studies on animal models to clinical studies on humans.
The 7 Tesla high-field MRI system is located in the Elliman Clinical Research Building and is directed by Bruce Berkowitz.
- SPECT Scanner
A new SPECT scanner will be purchased and installed in 2025. More details to come.
- Research, Design, and Analysis Consulting (RDA) Unit
The RDA provides assistance with the design of research projects and the statistical analysis of data.