A multidisciplinary team led by Simon Cherry and Ramsey Badawi developed EXPLORER, the world’s first whole-body PET scanner. PET (positron emission tomography) is an extremely safe and powerful method for imaging inside the body, used to evaluate organs and other tissues for potential diseases, including cancer. While conventional PET scanners image the body as a series of slices, EXPLORER captures a detailed three-dimensional image of the entire body, dramatically reducing the time required for scans. This high-quality imaging enables better diagnostics and new studies — for example of how a drug is distributed through the body. Initial research and development was funded by the NIH, and the scanner is now commercially available through United Imaging Healthcare of Shanghai.
