The Gallaecia POCTEP project aims to create a Portuguese-Galician collaborative network for the development of PET-related capabilities, equipment and services, integrating the main players in the sector: research and technology centres, hospitals, universities and companies.
The network will significantly increase the PET technological capabilities of both regions, from pre-clinical research to clinical use. We face technological challenges with the development of new equipment, with special emphasis on the development of new high-resolution PET equipment, essential in the detection and monitoring of neurological diseases associated with ageing, and in the development of therapies and drugs in research.
The actions to be implemented in this area involve the development of instrumentation, mainly the design and implementation of new radiation detectors based on innovative materials that offer better performance than current detectors, and also focus on the implementation of software, applied to the basic signal processing of the equipment, up to the software associated with the interpretation of the images. These actions will be complemented by the implementation of new services, from the production of PET radiopharmaceuticals to the start-up of new pre-clinical research units.
The cooperation network focuses a major part of its efforts on communication and training. These actions aim to advance the expansion of the network itself through the incorporation of new collaborators and through the development of new joint research projects, both among members of the network and external members who were not included in the initial application.
