ESP Biography

Molecular Imaging emerged in the early twenty-first century as a discipline at the intersection of molecular biology and in vivo imaging. It enables the visualization of the cellular function and the follow-up of the molecular process in living organisms without perturbing them. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine imaging, an important molecular imaging technique which produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. The theory behind PET is simple enough. Briefly, tracking molecule need to tagged with a positron emitting isotope and followed by scan the body with PET-CT. PET imaging have many advantages. The most important is its sensitivity: a typical PET scanner can detect between 10−11 mol/L to 10−12 mol/L concentrations. Dr. Arutselvan Natarajan, Stanford staff scientist will give an overview of PET which is key imaging modality for cancer staging and therapy.