Molecular imaging of PET reporter gene expression

Multimodality molecular imaging continues to rapidly expand and is impacting many areas of biomedical research as well as patient management. Reporter-gene assays have emerged as a very general strategy for indirectly monitoring various intracellular events. Furthermore, reporter genes are being used to monitor gene/cell therapies, including the location(s), time variation, and magnitude of gene expression. This chapter reviews reporter gene technology and its major pre-clinical and clinical applications to date. The future appears quite promising for the continued expansion of the use of reporter genes in many evolving biomedically related arenas.