Current status and future challenges for molecular imaging

Abstract

Molecular imaging (MI), used in its wider sense of biology at the molecular level, is a field that lies at the intersection of molecular biology and traditional medical imaging. As advances in medicine have exponentially expanded over the last few decades, so has our need to better understand the fundamental behaviour of living organisms in a non-invasive and timely manner. This commentary draws from topics the authors addressed in their presentations at the 2017 Royal Society Meeting 'Challenges for chemistry in molecular imaging', as well as a discussion of where MI is today and where it is heading in the future.This article is part of the themed issue 'Challenges for chemistry in molecular imaging'.

Molecular imaging of pulmonary diseases

“…To this extent, the emerging field of molecular imaging is of great relevance. Molecular imaging is a field at the intersection of molecular biology and conventional medical imaging [ 1 ]. Unconventional imaging modalities such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) exhibit high sensitivity and resolution to provide information at a molecular level.…”

New dawn fades: From imaging to quantitative imaging biomarkers and beyond

“…Being based whether on hybrid/molecular imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET), combined with CT or MRI 6 , or in several cases deriving from CT, many of these outstanding techniques, providing the quantitative imaging biomarkers (QIBs), are actually arrising from MR imaging, which, even after almost forty years of continuous improvements, does not cease to surprise us with the novel achievements and possibilities. Different MRI derived techniques are actually allowing us both to observe the meticulous morphometric details, and to characterise various tissue structures on different magnetic field strength devices, but also to examine the biochemical tissue composition in vivo by use of 1 H MR spectroscopy, to obtain dynamic data on tissue perfusion by use of perfusion MRI with exogenous or endogenous contrast tracer, to obtain functional information and to map the brain activities by use of functional MRI and to get the insight into the tissue internal bioarchitecture and brain pathways by use of diffusion imaging, including diffusion tensor and/or kurtosis imaging 5,7 .…”

“…In addition, capability to collect important metabolic and molecular information by integration of CT or MRI devices in hybrid systems with positron emission tomography (PET) by use of numerous and different specific radionuclide tracers opened the door to the whole new quantitative imaging biomarker (QIB) molecular data sets assessment 6,8,9 .…”

Editorial: The Chemistry of Imaging Probes

“…Currently, molecular imaging can be performed in the clinical environment via Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Optical Imaging (OI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Computed Tomography (CT) and Ultrasound (US). Each of these imaging modalities has its own advantages and disadvantages, and therefore, a multimodal approach combining two techniques is often adopted to generate complementary anatomical and functional information of the disease (Anderson and Lewis, 2017 ).…”