The start- up "Imaging Network Berlin (INB)" therefore aims at supporting the consolidation and the coordination of the widespread regional activities concerning Molecular Imaging and at closing possible gaps within the value- added process.

Coordinated by the TSB Medici medical technology initiative of the Technology Foundation Berlin, and funded with Federal and State money as part of the joint agreement for improving economic structures, the INB brings together scientific institutes from the Charité, pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment suppliers as well as small and midsized businesses from Berlin. Using modern imaging modalities like 7 Tesla MRT, oMRT, SPECT-CT and PET-MR, the INB aims to establish an interdisciplinary Imaging Cluster and improve the translation from pre-clinical to clinical research.

• Intensification of co-operation between network partners
• Establishment of a centre for small animal imaging
• Common development of imaging markers
• Strengthen optical imaging and nuclear-medicine procedures
• Improvement of translation from pre-clinical to clinical research
• Ongoing development of imaging procedures

The enormous growth of knowledge in the area of the molecular causes of diseases, the targeted development of contrast agents and the development of technical apparatus in the area of imaging enables - ever increasingly - the imaging and quantifying of molecular changes associated with the development of disease, even before these cause initial anatomical-morphological changes. This allows abnormal changes to be specifically identified and treated at a much earlier stage.

Molecular imaging is therefore a key technology for the advancement of purpose-orientated molecular medicine.