Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful nuclear-based imaging technique that allows the functional, quantitative, kinetic and tomographic (3D) visualization of physiological and biochemical processes. The technique relies on the injection of a radiopharmaceutical probe that is designed to interact with a specific biomolecule identified to play an important role in a disease process (these biomolecules are known as biomarkers). The ability to visualize the presence and function of a specific biomarker can provide scientists and physicians with information vital for the diagnosing, characterization, staging, and treatment of that disease. Given the recent progress made by molecular biologists in identifying new biomarkers coupled with the world shortage of medical isotopes, a high demand now exists for the development of new generation PET imaging agents. We aim to develop new molecular imaging probes that will enable scientists to functionally image enzymatic biomarkers relevant to cancer by employing some of the strategies developed for prodrug therapy. Prodrug therapy involves the administration of a biologically inactive derivative of a drug which becomes enzymatically or chemically activated primarily at the desired site of action. By applying this strategy to PET imaging, we hope to design agents that become selectively activated by their enzymatic biomarkers and accumulate in cancerous tissues, thus enabling tumor detection by PET. Additionally, any ability to monitor in vivo enzymatic activity in real time, will contribute to a fundamental understanding of how these enzymes function within their complex environment and their role within disease processes.