Molecular Imaging of Disease

New

Molecular imaging is a medical discipline that aims at visualizing normal and abnormal processes in living systems for the early diagnosis of disease. Clinical applications of molecular imaging include the use of nuclear medicine (PET and SPECT imaging), magnetic resonance (MRI) and fluorescent imaging (FI) and ultrasound (US). Pitfalls and remarks of these imaging modalities will be briefly discussed.

Emphasis will be put on the PET and SPECT techniques which are currently the only true "molecular" imaging methods due to their valuable quantitative capabilities. Multiple agents have been developed, predominantly for PET imaging but also for SPECT imaging. In this talk, we will overview various examples of imaging constructs, ranging from small molecules to antibodies and nanoparticles. Special attention will be given to probes for imaging thrombosis in vivo which is the underlying cause of deadly diseases such as stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and heart attack. Pre-clinical results with 64Cu-FBP8, a PET probe that recognizes fibrin and is currently in clinical studies in the US, will be presented.

Number of sessions: 1