Challenges for chemistry in molecular imaging

Healthcare practice, both in the UK and internationally is in a state of flux. Change is arising both from economic stringencies and new opportunities, underpinned by emerging scientific and technologically driven developments. Arguably, some of the most significant developments involve the recent rapid advances in medical imaging. The technological pull is most acute in the management of chronic disease, where the current population-based treatment strategies ignore many of the opportunities for personalization of care. These opportunities could be seized through early diagnosis and more effective treatments for the individual patient. Advances in imaging are revolutionizing the way to treat diseases, whether it be accurately locating the position of a tumour or providing a method that allows early diagnosis of a disease. In the clinic, around 45 million magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans are taken every year, of which 40% use a contrast agent to enhance signal intensity selectively. Radioisotope tracers are equally widely used, e.g. for blood perfusion imaging using positron emission tomography (PET, e.g. 18F-labelled probes such as fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) or 68Ga-labelled peptides and proteins) or gamma-imaging (SPECT, e.g. with 99mTc, 111In). However, the basic approach in such studies has not changed through the course of this period, and most imaging studies rely on relatively simple …