BME Seminar Series
Presents

Jeffrey Tsao, Ph.D.
Laboratory Head, Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Discovery Technologies
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc.

Imaging in Drug Discovery

Friday, March 16, 2007
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
BME Lecture Hall (Room 1041), MR-5

ABSTRACT
The rapid advances in imaging modalities over the past three decades have transformed the landscape of diagnostic imaging. Today, a similar evolution is starting to occur in drug discovery, where imaging holds the potential to facilitate target identification and validation, animal model characterization, drug profiling and efficacy evaluations. Key opportunities exist in both preclinical and clinical imaging. For example, on the preclinical end, advances in genomics and biologic intervention (e.g. siRNA, antibodies) allow imaging to be used to probe specific molecular pathways or downstream markers thereof. The availability of a wider range of conventional, targeted, and activatable contrast agents permits specific interrogation of molecular processes that are otherwise difficult to achieve. Also, optical imaging becomes feasible in the preclinical regime due to the small sample size. In contrast, clinical imaging benefits from the increased size and certain timing advantages such as heart rate, which facilitate applications such as receptor imaging by nuclear medicine, rapid angiography by CT, atherosclerotic plaque imaging by MRI, spectroscopy, diffusion tensor imaging, etc. By exploiting the advantages on both sides and understanding the respective limitations, imaging provides a key enabling technology that may help translation from preclinical research to clinical development.