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Preclinical Positron Emission Tomography with Body Conforming Animal Molds for Cloud-Based Automated Image Analysis in Mice

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Noninvasive structural, functional, and molecular imaging in drug development.

¹Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zürich, HIT-E22.4, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland. rudin@biomed.ee.ethz.ch

Current Opinion in Chemical Biology

|May 19, 2009

Summary

Molecular imaging offers valuable insights into drug discovery and development by visualizing molecular targets and their functions in vivo. Despite past modest impact, evolving noninvasive imaging methods promise increased importance in biomedical research.

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Area of Science:

Biomedical research
Drug discovery and development
Molecular imaging

Background:

Modern drug research focuses on mechanism-based approaches and identifying key molecular players in disease pathology.
Noninvasive imaging tools allow for quantitative assessment of molecular targets, ligand interactions, and functional consequences at multiple biological levels.
The ability to gather in vivo data from intact organisms makes imaging highly attractive for drug development.

Purpose of the Study:

To illustrate the role and potential of molecular imaging in modern drug discovery and development.
To discuss the reasons for the modest past impact of imaging in drug discovery.
To highlight the increasing importance of noninvasive imaging methods in biomedical research.

Main Methods:

Utilizing structural and functional imaging readouts to document therapy efficacy, primarily during lead optimization.
Developing and evaluating imaging biomarkers as early indicators of therapy response for clinical drug evaluation.
Presenting selected examples to demonstrate the application of imaging in drug discovery and development.

Main Results:

Proof-of-principle has been established for imaging adding value to drug discovery and development processes.
Imaging readouts have been used to document therapy efficacy in numerous studies, particularly during lead optimization.
Significant efforts are directed towards developing imaging biomarkers to facilitate translational research.

Conclusions:

Molecular imaging holds significant potential for advancing drug discovery and development.
Despite its potential, the impact of imaging on drug discovery has been modest, with reasons to be discussed.
Noninvasive imaging methods are rapidly evolving, and their importance in biomedical research is expected to grow.