The microPET story

While observing imaging research at UCLA, a new young Crump faculty member with a background in engineering and physics was wondering how to create new ways to explore biology. In addition, as a member of the Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, he knew there was a need to be able to study the interactions of drugs with the biology of living organisms in health and disease.

Out of his fresh look at the needs of biology and medicine, his team invented a new technology that revolutionized preclinical imaging of the biology of disease and molecular therapeutics - known today as the microPET scanner. That young man was Simon Cherry. Since then, Crump faculty and students have disseminated this technology throughout the academic community. Initially, commercialization occurred through a start-up company, and currently seven companies manufacture “microPET” instruments. Hundreds of microPET scanners are in use worldwide in academic, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industry research centers.

MicroPET ushered in the era of molecular imaging in a basic science setting - the observation of key molecules, events, and processes in living organisms. Preclinical imaging technologies have expanded to include microPET, optical imaging, MRI, microCT and ultrasound, providing the foundation for the scientific evolution of parallel clinical versions of each these technologies. The National Institutes of Health has initiated major program funding in preclinical molecular imaging.

Technology drives science - providing access to see things never seen before and enabling accomplishments that at one time seemed impossible. It originally took 20 years to determine the DNA sequence of the cold virus and the cost was $180 million to sequence a single gene. Lee Hood’s invention of the automated sequencer at Caltech made it possible to sequence the SARS virus in a day, and it costs a few dollars to sequence a gene.

In the continuing spirit of discovery and invention, Crump Institute faculty, staff and students are pursuing innovative technologies and science to accelerate our understanding of biology and medicine.