Preclinical Vevo-F2 ultrasound imaging system for Small Animal Imaging core facility

Abstract:
This proposal is to request a high resolution preclinical ultrasound imaging system, Vevo-F2, for the Small Animal
Imaging (SAI) Facility, a shared imaging core facility at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The facility
houses multiple pieces of preclinical imaging equipment for optical, PET/SPECT, CT, MRI, and ultrasound
imaging, aiming to provide cutting edge preclinical imaging support to various research groups. The core is
currently providing ultrasound imaging with Vevo-2100 systems to more than twenty labs with a wide range of
research focus including cardiology, oncology, vascular research, genetics, embryonic research, and stem cell
research. There have been increasing needs of ultrasound imaging in the past several years. Our usage of
ultrasound imaging in 2021 was increased more than two times compared to the year of 2020. The projected
usage in 2022 based on the first quarter has 60% increase compared to the previous year. On the other hand,
the Vevo-2100 system is approaching end-of-life stage and will be no longer supported by the vender at the end
of 2023. We are requesting to upgrade the current system to a more capable animal ultrasound imaging system,
Vevo-F2. The Vevo-F2 system will offer enhanced imaging capability that the current Vevo-2100 cannot provide.
Major new features include: 4D imaging capability allowing capture the complete cardiac cycle in 3D; Significantly
faster acquisition speed (10x faster frame rate compared to Vevo-2100); HD image processing capability
resulting low artifacts and high SNR; additional transducer in the range of 8 MHz for imaging on larger animals;
Enhanced Doppler sensitivity for better visualization and measurement of blood flow. These new imaging
features will largely enhance our research capability in various fields. The requested Vevo-F2 system will be
serving at least 12 Major users and 4 Minor users. Strong institutional commitment is also demonstrated that the
service contract for 4 years will be covered by the school, and additional $40k will be provided for increased staff
salary support. The requested imaging equipment will foreseeably enhance the ultrasound imaging capability in
the Core facility, and more importantly, support the growing needs from our research communities during their
scientific endeavor to tackle biomedical questions.