From our Director
 
Integrated science. Innovative technology.  This is the Crump Institute.
 
Our track record illustrates the magic of mixing the best minds in the physical, biological, and medical sciences, to create new science through invention of technologies to achieve it.
 
This began when my colleagues and I, with backgrounds in chemistry, physics, engineering, and mathematics, invented the PET scanner.  PET, or positron emission tomography, provides a powerful means to look inside the human body and watch the living chemistry of cells and organ systems, providing new insights into how we function normally and what fails in disease. Never before had this been possible. Today PET imaging has grown to become a mainstay in the clinical imaging of cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other major diseases throughout the world.
 
That wasn’t enough - we needed to build a stepping stone to connect the discoveries of basic biology to molecular imaging in a preclinical setting.  The "History” page tells the MicroPET Story, how Crump scientists invented a new technology that opened windows for watching fundamental life processes - in intact living organisms. Since then we have pioneered the establishment of “Molecular Imaging” as a central platform in biological and pharmacological investigation.
 
Now we are bridging the next gap - building the knowledge base and technology to produce new molecular imaging probes.  These probes are needed to expand our pictures of the biology of disease – so that we can watch genes issue their instructions, observe the generation of the cell’s molecular components and the metabolism that fuels their function, and spy on their communications, all of this within tissues and organ systems of the living organism. New ways of “seeing” will lead to a new understanding of normal functions in health, and open avenues for intervention when disease arises.
 
Crump scientists have created a unique laboratory for interdisciplinary investigations across mathematical, engineering, physical, biological and medical sciences.  We draw in the people who do the best science, who share our vision, no matter where they are. Strong partnerships with the California NanoSystems Institute, Caltech, and the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle increase our access to science and technology.  Close ties with the Institute for Molecular Medicine, the Institute of Stem Cell Biology & Medicine, and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA provide links to pass our innovations into the hands of faculty and students who will implement our discoveries to improve the lives of patients and people everywhere.
 
We’ve proven this approach works by bringing PET, microPET, and molecular imaging to the scientific and medical research communities.  And we continue to provide novel technologies that accelerate the pace of discovery.