• better understanding of how diseases and complex organs (such as the brain) operate.
• evaluation of new drugs and therapies (gene and cell therapies, in particular) for cancer and neurological, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, hepatic and infectious diseases (such as AIDS).

The next generation of imaging systems will be a critical factor of success, on one hand to improve understanding of what is an organ’s normal or pathological functioning, and on the other hand to establish an early diagnosis and elaborate new medicine and therapies, with reduced time and cost.

It is the belief expressed in 2005 by the industry and doctors during the strategic counsel of health industries in 2005. In the USA, in 2002, the National Institute of Biomedical Image and Bioengineering was created within the NIH.

Stakeholders

Companies

Most of the leading multinationals in imaging are located in the Paris Ile-de-France region - Siemens, General Electric Healthcare, Philips France, for example, are members of Medicen Paris Region. A number of start-ups targeting high added value market niches are also present: Mauna Kea Technology, Echosens, Genomic Vision, etc.

As for the imaging agent market, Guerbet and CIS-Bio International (owned by Schering) are located in the Paris Ile-de-France region. In terms of computer systems and image processing, one can mention DosiSoft, Segami, Imstar and Biospace. Finally, pharmaceutical companies (notably Servier, Sanofi-Aventis and Ipsen in the region) are heavy users of medical imaging in their R&D activities.

Biomedical imaging research players

The Frederic Joliot Hospital Service (SHFJ) in Orsay: the SHFJ, founded on the Orsay hospital site by the French Atomic Energy Commissariat (CEA) in 1958, is at the heart of biomedical imaging. Its three main development axes are as follows: molecular & cellular neurobiology, pre-clinical & clinical trials and the development of brain imaging techniques (positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) & nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy).

The SHFJ is the only research unit in Europe developing and operating all these various methods for functional, non-invasive exploration in humans, in close symbiosis with research laboratories (both fundamental and applied) and a nuclear medicine clinical unit, in the fields of neurodegenerative diseases and new therapeutic strategies.

For many years, the service has promoted scientific collaboration between medical imaging research groups and those directly applying the imaging techniques. This research is notably structured via the Neurofunctional Imaging Federative Research Institute (IFR 49), which is primarily based on a two-site technical facility (SHFJ/Orsay on one hand and the Salpêtrière Hospital (with its CEA, AP-HP, CNRS, INSERM and Paris VI research groups) on the other), with the additional involvement of other major imaging sites in the Paris Ile-de-France region (such as the CIERM at Bicêtre Hospital, see below).

Other partners include: the Ecole Centrale de Paris, the University of Cergy-Pontoise, the Ecole Polytechnique, the Orsay Institute of Optics, the Universities of Paris V, VI, VII & XI, the CNRS, the INSERM, the AP-HP (the Henri Mondor, Pitié-Salpêtrière, Antoine Beclère, Paul Brousse, Sainte Anne and Robert Debré hospitals) and the Curie, Gustave-Roussy and Pasteur Institutes, etc.

The Inter-Establishment Magnetic Resonance Center (CIERM) at Bicêtre Hospital is a hospital department linked to research groups in the Medical Magnetic Resonance Research Unit (U2R2M). This joint CNRS/University of Paris Sud XI unit performs research on the medical applications of NMR and particularly specializes in the creation of new methods and instruments designed to broaden the technique's medical applications. This highly interdisciplinary center is located on two University of Paris Sud sites: the Faculty of Medicine (Le Kremlin – Bicêtre) and the Faculty of Science (Orsay).

The ESPCI biomedical imaging center in Paris researches original, even unique approaches in the field of biomedical imaging, in order to acquire a more precise multi-scale knowledge of life mechanisms. Hence the creation of a department that brings together team that belong to various laboratories: Laboratoire d’optique (optical biomedical imaging), Laboratoire Ondes et Acoustique (imaging and ultrasound therapy), Laboratoire d’électricité générale (medical instruments), Laboratoire de neurophisiologie et nouvelles microscopies et nanosondes (medical imaging in the microscopic and nanoprobes field).

The LOB (Laboratoire d’Optique et de Biosciences) at Ecole Polytechnique : this joint structure (INSERM CNRS Ecole Polytechnique ENSTA) brings together on one site competences in cellular and molecular biology, optics and femtosecond dynamics. It aims at developing synergies and boost the emergence of new concepts and tools, targeted at understanding the functioning of protein and their organization in the cell.

Higher education: biomedical imaging is incorporated in many biology teaching programs focused on nervous system disease, drug development, medical radiophysics and instrumentation in physics. Furthermore, it constitutes the heart of Masters programs on imaging and related techniques at a number of universities (Paris V, VI, VII and XI; Evry, Versailles-Saint Quentin, Cergy-Pontoise, Paris Val de Marne), the INSTN and some elite engineering schools.


Cohesion-promoting elements

Medicen Paris Region will soon have two new biomedical imaging platforms. Together with the SHFJ, they will form an ensemble that will be unique in Europe, and, for some pieces of equipment such as the High-field NMR, unique in the world:

NeuroSpin (CEA) at Saint Aubin/Saclay in the Essonne county: this high-field NMR neuro-imaging center, which will be equipped with MRI installations between 3 and 7 Teslas will be in service at the end of 2007. It is dedicated to cognitive and clinical neurosciences as well as to MRI methodological and technical developments. These developments will help push back the current limits of imaging in the field of brain exploration, whether in term of spatial resolution, temporal resolution or critical biological parameters. Siemens and Guerbet are strongly involved in this project.

NeuroSpin will help scientists better understand how the brain works, together with its developmental and functional anomalies. Its work will result in the creation of diagnosis and treatment tools for neurodegenerative, infectious pathologies and cancers. The NeuroSpin center will be a pilot site for the acquisition of electro-encephalography equipment. Simultaneously, MRI equipment and magneto-encephalography methods will be developed on the site. The center will house researchers, doctors and industrial players and will offer training in the new techniques.     

Mircen (a joint CEA/INSERM project at Fontenay-aux-Roses in the Hauts-de-Seine county) is a multimodal imaging platform which is unique in Europe and focuses on the pre-clinical stage for gene, cellular and drug therapy. It will bring together on one site the latest techniques and know-how in cellular biology, gene transfer, electrophysiology and behavioral science, around high-performance imaging technology such as MRI, PET, NMR spectroscopy. Mircen will also house equipment intended for high-level electrophysiology, behavioral and anatomy studies, in the laboratories and animal houses of high microbiological security (levels 2 and 3).

Thanks to the development of relevant animal models, it will become possible to design, implement and validate new drugs and therapeutic approaches (cellular and genetic) for neurodegenerative, infectious (AIDS), hepatic and cardiac diseases.

Two more projects in the field of neurosciences will receive imaging equipment: ICM (Institut du Cerveau et de la moëlle épinière) at la Salpétrière Hospital, and Institut de la Vision at the Quinze-Vingts Hospital.

Numerous research teams are working on cellular imaging platforms, located at the Institut Curie, Institut Pasteur (Imagopole), Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS, Paris VI and Paris VII), at the CRBM (Centre de recherches biomedicales des Cordeliers), at the CNRS in Gif-sur-Yvette, at the ENS in Cachan (Institut fédératif d’Alembert), and at Ecole Polytechnique.