CIR successfully inaugurated. “Takes precision medicine to the next level”
- Our true north is always what's best for the patient. And the Centre for Imaging Research will play an important role in realizing this vision, said Björn Zoëga, CEO of Karolinska University Hospital as he kicked off the inauguration of the Centre at KI:s BioMedicum on January 26.
CIR is a collection of facilities for cutting-edge imaging in both humans and animals in vivo, in the words of its director, Daniel Lundqvist.
After years of planning and preparation, it is now ready to open its activities.
- CIR will provide the means for advanced diagnostics and treatments and will profile the Karolinska Institute and the Karolinska Hospital as world-leading in the field of imaging and imaging-related therapies, added Daniel Lundqvist.
The main part of the instruments and facilities of CIR are placed on floor four of the BioClinicum building. This is something that adds to its usefulness, remarked Ole Petter Ottersen, president of the Karolinska Institute.
- It's absolutely impressive to see all these different techniques, modalities, all this fantastic equipment in one location. And I think this is one of the secrets of success: proximity. There are very few places in the world that I have been to where you have all these modalities in one place.
Several of the speakers at the inauguration emphasized the importance of CIR’s many capacities when it comes to developing advanced therapies for patients.
- It is when we come to multi-professional and multi-modal assessments with different technologies that we should take precision medicine and the care for the patients to the next level, stated Mathias Axelsson, director of Medical Diagnostics Karolinska.
- With a tight collaboration between the researchers and the clinical part, I think we can do astonishing things.
And the president of KI, among others, underlined the importance of the smooth cooperation between partners that has made CIR a reality.
- We may forget about it, but the collaboration between the Karolinska Institute, the Karolinska Hospital, and the Stockholm Region has been absolutely essential, said Ole Petter Ottersen.
There was much praise for the instruments and the facilities, but Daniel Lundqvist wanted also to focus on what he considers the most vital part of the whole endeavor.
- The people in this room and their stamina, the motivation and the expertise that these people represent, is the most important part of the journey that has brought us here, concluded CIR director Daniel Lundqvist.
Text: Tomas Lindblad
CIR - the Centre for Imaging Research is an exceptional collection of facilities for cutting-edge structural, functional, and metabolic in vivo imaging of all organs, in humans, non-human primates, small and large animals.
CIR has a particularly competitive edge on translational brain imaging and on combination of endovascular/minimally invasive surgical techniques and multimodal imaging, including several nationally unique and next-generation imaging instruments, and - not least - an internationally acclaimed radiopharmacy and radioligand development facility plus a radioligand binding and autoradiography facility.