Texas-based university research group. Current projects include: 'Multi-Modal Molecular Imaging Agents' or 'Micro-Fluidics and Nanosensing'. For example, the research group is evaluating Ln-PK-11195 as a bimodal imaging contrast agent for brain cancer detection by MRI and fluorescence.
Please see their Current Projects Abstracts for complete coverage.

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Cytogen Corporation of Princeton, NJ is a product-driven, oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company. Cytogen markets several products through its in- house oncology sales force: ProstaScint® (a monoclonal antibody-based imaging agent used to image the extent and spread of prostate cancer); BrachySeed™ I-125 and BrachySeed™ Pd-103 (two uniquely designed, next generation radioactive seed implants for the treatment of localized prostate cancer), and NMP22® BladderChek™ (a highly accurate and convenient antibody-based point-of-care staging test for bladder cancer detection). Cytogen has also developed Quadramet®, a skeletal targeting therapeutic radiopharmaceutical for the relief of bone pain in prostate and other types of cancer. Cytogen's pipeline comprises product candidates at various stages of clinical development, including fully human monoclonal antibodies and cancer vaccines based on PSMA (prostate specific membrane antigen) technology, which was exclusively licensed from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
A license and marketing agreement with AMAG Pharmaceuticals Inc' (formerly Advanced Magnetics), to market the functional molecular imaging agent Combidex®, was terminated in 2007.

EP-2104R is a molecularly targeted MRI contrast agent for high resolution blood clot imaging within half an hour of injection. This gadolinium based small peptide has high affinity and specificity for human fibrin.
The thrombus agent is a new class of contrast medium for the diagnostic of, e.g. deep venous thrombosis, carotid artery blood clots, coronary artery blood clots and pulmonary embolism. Fibrin is an excellent target for a molecular imaging contrast agent, since it is present in arterial and venous clots at high concentrations (20-100 μM), and is a target for fibrinolytic therapy.
Due to financial problems, the developer EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had to shut down all operations. As a consequence, the development of EP-2104R is discontinued.

Eovist® (other brand name Primovist™) is a organ specific MRI contrast agent for the imaging, detection and characterization of liver conditions, including liver tumors, cysts, as well as other malignant and benign lesions. It is a water-soluble ethoxybenzyl derivative of Gd-DTPA. This compound is taken up by the hepatocytes (approximately 30% of the dose goes to the hepatocytes) and is equally excreted renal and biliary in humans. Excretion of Gd-EOB-DTPA in the bile may also permit visualization of both the gall bladder and the bile ducts.
Eovist® brightens the signal of T1 weighted MR images immediately after contrast administration. Dynamic and accumulation phase imaging can also be performed after bolus injection of Eovist®. The hepatocytes uptake will increase the signal intensity of normal liver parenchyma at 10 to 20 minutes after injection. This results in improved lesion-to-liver contrast because malignant tumors (metastases, the majority of hepatocellular carcinomas) do not contain either hepatocytes or their functioning is hampered.

WARNING: Gadolinium-based contrast agents increase the risk for nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in patients with acute or chronic severe renal insufficiency (glomerular filtration rate less than 30 mL/min/1.73m²), or acute renal insufficiency of any severity due to the hepato-renal syndrome or in the perioperative liver transplantation period.

See also Drug Development and Approval Process USA, Contrast Medium, Hepatobiliary Contrast Agents, Tumor Specific Agents and Molecular Imaging.

The definition of imaging is the visual representation of an object. Medical imaging began after the discovery of x-rays by Konrad Roentgen 1896. The first fifty years of radiological imaging, pictures have been created by focusing x-rays on the examined body part and direct depiction onto a single piece of film inside a special cassette. The next development involved the use of fluorescent screens and special glasses to see x-ray images in real time.
A major development was the application of contrast agents for a better image contrast and organ visualization. In the 1950s, first nuclear medicine studies showed the up-take of very low-level radioactive chemicals in organs, using special gamma cameras. This medical imaging technology allows information of biologic processes in vivo. Today, PET and SPECT play an important role in both clinical research and diagnosis of biochemical and physiologic processes. In 1955, the first x-ray image intensifier allowed the pick up and display of x-ray movies.
In the 1960s, the principals of sonar were applied to diagnostic imaging. Ultrasonic waves generated by a quartz crystal are reflected at the interfaces between different tissues, received by the ultrasound machine, and turned into pictures with the use of computers and reconstruction software. Ultrasound imaging is an important diagnostic tool, and there are great opportunities for its further development. Looking into the future, the grand challenges include targeted contrast agents, real-time 3D ultrasound imaging, and molecular imaging.
Digital imaging techniques were implemented in the 1970s into conventional fluoroscopic image intensifier and by Godfrey Hounsfield with the first computed tomography. Digital images are electronic snapshots sampled and mapped as a grid of dots or pixels. The introduction of x-ray CT revolutionised medical imaging with cross sectional images of the human body and high contrast between different types of soft tissue. These developments were made possible by analog to digital converters and computers. The multislice spiral CT technology has expands the clinical applications dramatically.
The first MRI devices were tested on clinical patients in 1980. The spread of CT machines is the spur to the rapid development of MRI imaging and the introduction of tomographic imaging techniques into diagnostic nuclear medicine. With technological improvements including higher field strength, more open MRI magnets, faster gradient systems, and novel data-acquisition techniques, MRI is a real-time interactive imaging modality that provides both detailed structural and functional information of the body.
Today, imaging in medicine has advanced to a stage that was inconceivable 100 years ago, with growing medical imaging modalities:
All this type of scans are an integral part of modern healthcare. Because of the rapid development of digital imaging modalities, the increasing need for an efficient management leads to the widening of radiology information systems (RIS) and archival of images in digital form in picture archiving and communication systems (PACS). In telemedicine, healthcare professionals are linked over a computer network. Using cutting-edge computing and communications technologies, in videoconferences, where audio and visual images are transmitted in real time, medical images of MRI scans, x-ray examinations, CT scans and other pictures are shareable.
See also Hybrid Imaging.

See also the related poll results: 'In 2010 your scanner will probably work with a field strength of', 'MRI will have replaced 50% of x-ray exams by'