[Receptors and markers: toward a science of imaging through hybridization]

Genomic- and proteomic-based imaging will enable the selection of populations and individuals "at risk"of suffering a certain disease before the clinical symptoms appear, identifying the existence, location, and extension of the bases of the disease, stratifying the risk, and making it possible to carry out and control treatments designed for each patient. In order to be efficacious, these molecular imaging techniques must generate both functional and structural information. The use of imaging probes together with advanced equipment allows numerous molecular complexes and cellular structures to be seen. Molecular imaging makes it possible to acquire, whether directly or indirectly, information about the spatial and temporal distribution of molecular or cellular processes that have not only clinical (diagnostic and therapeutic) applications but also basic (biochemical and physiological) applications. In the clinical area, nuclear medicine and radiology must work together to lead the development, implementation, and technological evaluation of molecular imaging. From this perspective, molecular hybridization techniques must progress toward the coordination of efforts, in training and in application as well as in research, to enable us to develop fully as imaging professionals in the service of healthcare. Molecular imaging provides imaging physicians with the possibility to advance substantially in early diagnosis, in the stratification of risk and prognosis, as well as in treatment monitoring in numerous biological and cellular processes related to the disease.