The Brain Health Imaging Centre (BHIC) is home to the Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry and is among the largest facilities in the world dedicated to mental health, housing two cyclotrons, 17 hot cells, and radiochemistry and medicinal chemistry laboratories with state-of-the-art automation.
The BHIC has produced over 40 PET radiopharmaceuticals, primarily for first-in-use in Canada. Half of these were translated from “bench-to-bedside-to-community” meaning they directly benefited patients.
Pre-Clinical Neuroscience
The BHIC has state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure for fundamental and applied neuroscience, including behavioural studies with our newly installed PET-CT and PET-MRI scanners, and digital autoradiography.
Our scientists are making discoveries for all facets of brain health, including addictions, schizophrenia, mood disorders, neuro-developmental disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, COVID-19, learning from cancer with neuro-oncology, and studying sex differences in mental health.
Clinical PET Research
We have a PET-CT and a high-resolution brain PET scanner for clinical research which is supported by a team of medical physicists and engineers with expertise in kinetic modelling.
Our scientists have advanced the diagnosis and treatment of brain health across the lifespan, including sex differences in mental health, autism spectrum disorders, psychosis, mood and anxiety disorders, addictions and substance use challenges, neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries in athletes and military veterans.
MRI Studies
The BHIC’s MRI unit has a 3-Tesla scanner with multi-nuclear imaging capabilities. Our scientists use multimodal technologies including Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging(fMRI), Diffusion Tensor Imaging(DTI), Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), neuro-modulatory approaches (i.e., Transcranial magnetic Stimulation - TMS) and Electroencephalogram (EEG) to explore cognitive functioning, individual variability across diagnosis, gender identity, risk for development of mental health conditions, and transdiagnostic approaches including using AI and machine-learning.
