Siemens Healthineers and Cubresa have entered a global master interface agreement, focusing on the development and compatibility assessment of the latter’s BrainPET scanner in Magnetom magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

The agreement will initially concentrate on Siemens’ Magnetom Terra and Terra.X 7T MRI scanners, with plans to extend compatibility to other models and field strengths.

Cubresa CEO and founder James Schellenberg said: “Cubresa is proud to enter into this partnership with Siemens Healthineers.

“Our company has built a foundation on delivering innovative, high-quality PET scanners to our customers worldwide, and the relationship between Cubresa and Siemens Healthineers will build on this foundation.”

With its “low-profile” retrofit design, BrainPET allows for “cost-effective” integration of positron emission tomography (PET) into existing MR suites, providing a solution for imaging centres to switch between PET/MRI and MRI-only scans as required.

It is being developed for monitoring and assessing neurological conditions such as brain cancers, Alzheimer's disease, and epilepsy.

BrainPET system includes various components such as an integrated PET ring, a removable transmit/receive coil, a storage cart, a cabinet with PET acquisition electronics, and a workstation, among others.

It facilitates the execution of hybrid imaging within a single session, thereby providing a streamlined patient experience.

The scanner is still an investigational device and has not yet been approved for commercial sale.

In May 2023, the first BrainPET Insert system was installed at St Joseph's Health Care London by Cubresa, in collaboration with Lawson Health Research Institute of the hospital.

Cubresa is a Canadian company specialising in PET inserts for MRIs. Its technology offers tools that are instrumental for researchers and clinicians in visualising and measuring biochemical processes at the molecular level.