Beth Israel to Use New X-ray

A Harvard Medical school teaching hospital received a $1 million National Institute of Health (NIH) grant to purchase high-technology imaging equipment that will be instrumental to cancer research, the hospital announced Wednesday.

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) was one of 14 institutions to receive the High-End Instrumentation (HEI) grant, with which the hospital will install a multimodality pre-clinical imaging platform. The device—which will be used by the hospital’s Longwood Small Animal Imaging Facility (SAIF)—can perform three different types of X-ray imaging of plane sections of the body.

“Imaging is very important because it allows research without sacrificing the animal,” said Robert E. Lenkinski, one of SAIF’s directors.

In addition to facilitating Harvard Medical School in its cancer research, the equipment will also greatly enhance endocrine and neurological studies. In the 2006 US News and World Report rankings, BIDMC placed 43rd in cancer research and 12th in endocrinology.

“The combination of three machines into one is pretty new,” said SAIF manager Alec M. De Grand, who added that the new instrument is more compact and efficient.

“It’s a very much needed instrument for small animal molecular imaging and it will have a significant impact on biomedical research at the Longwood Medical Area Campus,” said HEI grant program director Marjorie A. Tingle.

The HEI program started as a 2002 initiative of the National Center for Research Resources, a part of the NIH, and has already awarded over $100 million to eligible public and non-profit hospitals and research institutions. This year’s awards amount to $21.5 million.

The HEI program funds the purchase of equipment between $750,000 and $2 million.

Massachusetts General Hospital, another Harvard-affiliate, also received this year’s HEI grant.