The PET Center produces and develops non-invasive PET imaging techniques and radiopharmaceuticals to personalize medicine, advance our understanding of disease, and improve public health.
PET (positron emission tomography) is a non-invasive nuclear medicine imaging technique that uses drug-like molecules labeled with radioactive nuclides to elucidate biochemical processes, diagnose disease, and track the impact of experimental drugs in clinical trials. The PET Center and Radiochemistry group is focused on producing radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging studies at Michigan Medicine. The radiochemistry group actively participates in industry-supported collaborative research projects in radiochemistry and preclinical studies of new drugs and radiopharmaceuticals. We routinely prepare radiopharmaceuticals for clinical application in cardiology, neurology and oncology using 11C, 18F, and 68Ga.
During the PET scan procedure, the PET-CT scanner detects pairs of gamma rays emitted, indirectly, by the radiopharmaceutical.
Images of radiopharmaceutical concentration in 3-dimensional or 4-dimensional space within the body are then reconstructed by computer analysis to provide physicians with an image of, for example, the patient’s brain or the whole body. In modern scanners, this reconstruction is typically accomplished with the aid of a CT scan performed on the patient during the same procedure.
The radiochemistry group actively participates in industry-supported collaborative research projects in radiochemistry and preclinical studies of new drugs and radiopharmaceuticals, and provides routine delivery of radiopharmaceuticals for clinical trials with partners in the pharmaceutical and radiopharmaceutical drug industry.
Funding for our research from the following sources is gratefully acknowledged:
University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program
Please contact us for further details and recharge pricing at [email protected].
