Organic Chemistry Seminar: Molecular Imaging with X-Nuclei MRI: Advancing Reporter Genes and Metabolic Imaging

Abstract:

The complexity of biological processes is apparent in almost every aspect of life, in health and disease, from enzymatic activity to metal ion homeostasis and from gene expression to metabolic networks.

MRI, with its unlimited tissue penetration capabilities and ability to combine information from biological targets with high-resolution anatomical images, has been transformed into a valuable imaging technology for molecular and cellular imaging and is now able to shed light on a part of this biological multiplexity. The versatility of imaging agents developed for MRI studies provides capabilities for imaging probe designs of various types (small molecules, polymers, proteins, or nanoparticles) for multiple targets and multiplexed imaging by exploiting the chemical shift encodability of several types of MRI. In this talk, I will summarize our recent work on developing and implementing novel molecular formulations for in vivo molecular and cellular MR imaging. I will discuss the advantages, promises, and pitfalls of using imaging agents designed for 2H-MRI and 19F MRI and give recent examples of strategies we developed to map gene expression and unexplored metabolic pathways with MRI. We envision that these strategies will extend the MRI toolbox with features that have thus far been inaccessible.

Event Organizer: Dr. Muhammad Jbara