The Small-Animal Cancer Imaging (SACI) Shared Resource provides state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure for MRI, PET, CT, Beta, SPECT, and optical imaging of mice, rats and other small laboratory animals that serve as models of cancer. Located in the heart of the Washington University Medical Center, SACI combines instrumental and intellectual capabilities found at few other institutions and serves a broad community of cancer scientists who have a pressing need for quantitative image analysis of small laboratory animal model systems.

SACI provides access to and maintenance of small-animal MRI, PET, CT, and optical imaging scanners and ancillary facilities and routinely assists and trains researchers in imaging procedures and data analysis methods. In addition to supporting research applications of small-animal cancer imaging, SACI also provides research and development at the frontier of imaging technology in an effort to make the most powerful new imaging strategies available to its community of users. The ancillary small-animal research services and capabilities provided by SACI are extraordinary. Support resources within SACI include consultation for experiment planning and data analysis, animal-procedure assistance for maintenance and monitoring of physiologic status during imaging, and informatics support for local and remote data access, analysis, visualization, and archival.