Gamma Medica introduced its new X-PET(TM) system today, a high performance pre-clinical PET (Positron Emission Tomography) imaging system. X-PET is available as part of the company's new FLEX(TM) pre-clinical molecular imaging platform. The FLEX platform can also be outfitted with the company's existing X-O(TM) MicroCT system module, making the Gamma Medica system the first commercially available integrated PET/CT system for pre-clinical molecular imaging.

In addition to X-PET and X-O, Gamma Medica's market leading X-SPECT(R) MicroSPECT(R) imaging system can also be included in the FLEX gantry, making FLEX the first such platform in either the pre-clinical or clinical arena to provide co-linear tri-modality imaging, allowing a stationary subject to be imaged by up to three different imaging modalities.

All FLEX imaging systems share a common gantry, allowing highly accurate co-registration and fusion of the various image data. Additionally, FLEX is modular, reconfigurable, upgradeable, and expandable, allowing researchers to order systems with the specific modality or modalities they need. In short, Gamma Medica's FLEX system can be configured as a single, dual, or tri-modality instrument. These features make FLEX the most cost-effective and highly productive approach to multi-modality pre-clinical imaging.

"The medical research community has been demanding multi-modality imaging systems, and we have been serving this community with our dual modality SPECT/CT offering for the last two years," said Dr. Bradley Patt, Gamma Medica's president and CEO. "Our objective has always been to develop best-of-breed systems in each modality, and combine them to create powerful multi-modality systems. With today's announcement of X-PET, we've added another important offering to our innovative FLEX platform."

Gamma Medica's new X-PET system uses technology licensed from the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC) in Houston under an exclusive agreement. "We are very pleased to be involved in this important effort to transfer key technology developed at UTMDACC into such a rapidly evolving field. We believe Gamma Medica was ideally suited to accelerate the introduction of this technology into the marketplace," said Dr. Phil Thomson, Director of Licensing in the Office of Technology Commercialization at UTMDACC.

The X-PET was originally developed as "RR-PET" under various grants from the National Institutes of Health and the State of Texas by Wai-Hoi (Gary) Wong, Ph.D., Director of the PET Instrumentation Laboratory at UTMDACC. Dr. Wong, one of the most renowned inventors in the PET scientific field, has been developing systems since 1980, the early days of PET. His previous developments include five generations of clinical PET systems, high-resolution PET-detector designs, and high-speed PET and nuclear electronics.

"My group members and I are extremely proud to see our RR-PET technology being deployed by Gamma Medica. We are glad to be working with the innovation leaders in the pre-clinical imaging field," said Dr. Wong.

Gamma Medica, Inc., Northridge, CA, designs, develops and manufactures next-generation imaging systems for both clinical and pre-clinical applications. The company invented MicroSPECT, and its X-SPECT system is the market leader in the small animal SPECT category. Gamma Medica's X-PET(TM) system has the highest sensitivity and largest axial field of view among small animal PET systems. The company's X-O(TM) system is a standalone Micro CT device that can perform full body scans on a wide range of test subjects in under one minute, making it one of the fastest such systems in the industry. All three systems share a common gantry and are part of the company's FLEX platform of pre-clinical imaging systems. Any two systems can be combined in the common gantry, as can all three. Gamma Medica pre-clinical imaging systems are used by medical researchers and drug companies that use in-vivo imaging techniques and molecular markers to dramatically speed up studies of disease progression and therapy. More information can be found by visiting http://www.gammamedica.com

Together with its worldwide marketing partner Siemens Medical Solutions, a division of Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, Gamma Medica sells its pre-clinical imaging systems to bio-pharmaceutical companies, research hospitals and universities around the world.