Mentors

Caius Radu, M.D. (Primary)
Johannes Czernin, M.D. (Secondary)
Nagichettiar Satyamurthy, Ph.D. (Tertiary)

Research Interests:

The overall goal of our research is to use PET imaging to accelerate and improve drug R&D. Using PET imaging as a noninvasive technique enables PK and PD studies at an early stage in the R&D process which has the added advantage of early-stage optimization of the lead compound. Our strategy to develop new therapeutic agents takes advantage of PET technology, thus, all of our therapeutic candidates have been designed to incorporate a fluorine 19 atom. The fluorine 19 atom included in the scaffold of the new molecular entities can be replaced with the fluorine 18 radioisotope to generate radiolabeled versions of therapeutic candidates that can be detected and quantified non-invasively throughout the body of living organisms by PET imaging.