Doctors often rely on nuclear medicine scans, such as SPECT scans, to look deep inside the body.
These scans can show the heart beating, trace blood flow, and reveal hidden diseases.
But today’s imaging devices are built with costly, fragile detectors that are difficult to manufacture. This has limited access to high-quality scans, especially in hospitals with fewer resources.
Now, an international team led by Northwestern University and Soochow University in China has developed the world’s first perovskite-based gamma-ray detector.
Their breakthrough could make nuclear medicine imaging clearer, faster, cheaper, and safer. The findings were recently published in Nature Communications.
For patients, this could mean shorter scans, lower doses of radiation, and sharper images—transforming both comfort and care. “Perovskites have already reshaped solar energy research,” said Northwestern’s Mercouri Kanatzidis, senior author of the study. “Now, they are poised to do the same for nuclear medicine.”
How nuclear imaging works
Nuclear medicine is like taking invisible photographs of the body. Doctors inject or implant a small, safe amount of radioactive material, known as a radiotracer, into a patient.
This radiotracer gives off gamma rays, which pass through tissues and are captured by a detector outside the body. Each gamma ray is like a tiny pixel of light. Computers then combine millions of these “pixels” to build detailed 3D images of organs at work.
The problem lies in the detectors themselves. The most advanced versions, made from cadmium zinc telluride (CZT), produce clear images but are brittle and extremely expensive—costing hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. A cheaper alternative, sodium iodide (NaI), is easier to produce but bulky and produces blurrier results.
Why perovskites are different
Perovskites are a family of crystals already famous for their role in solar power research. Kanatzidis and his team have studied them for more than a decade. In 2013, they discovered that perovskite single crystals were excellent at detecting X-rays and gamma rays. That discovery sparked global interest in using perovskites for radiation detection.
Building on that work, the researchers carefully grew and engineered high-quality perovskite crystals into a pixelated design, similar to the pixels in a smartphone camera. This design allowed them to create a gamma-ray detector with record-breaking clarity and stability. “It was incredibly rewarding to design this detector and show what it can do,” said Professor Yihui He of Soochow University, co-leader of the study.
In laboratory tests, the perovskite detector captured incredibly faint signals from technetium-99m, one of the most commonly used medical radiotracers.
It could even separate tiny radioactive sources placed just millimeters apart, producing crisp, detailed images. The detector also proved to be highly stable, gathering nearly all signals without distortion or loss.
This level of sensitivity means that future patients may need lower doses of radiation or spend less time inside scanning machines. Both would mark major improvements in patient comfort and safety.
Northwestern spinout company Actinia Inc. is now working to commercialize the technology.
Because perovskites are easier and cheaper to produce than CZT, the researchers believe their detectors could lower costs dramatically without sacrificing image quality. That could bring advanced nuclear imaging to many more hospitals and clinics worldwide.
“High-quality nuclear medicine shouldn’t be limited to hospitals that can afford the most expensive equipment,” said Kanatzidis. “With perovskites, we can open the door to clearer, faster, and safer scans for patients everywhere.”
The team plans to refine the detector further, scale up production, and test new uses in medical imaging. If successful, this perovskite “camera” could usher in a new era of more accessible and effective diagnostic care, giving doctors sharper tools and patients better outcomes.
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