Imagine hospitals where doctors would use imaging tools with the same frequency that is used for typical patients' digital cameras-regularly producing images as small as a millionth of a meter on surface.
Such images would be used to prevent and track the progression of diseases at unprecedented speeds.
And scientists from Duke and around the nation discussed these topics and more at the first research conference ever held in the University's new French Family Science Center. "Seeing is Believing: The Future of Molecular and Biomolecular Imaging," ran from Sunday, March 11 to Tuesday, March 13.
"As we complete the first decade of the 21st century, the fundamental limits of imaging methods dictate the pace of scientific and medical progress," said Warren Warren, James B. Duke professor of chemistry, radiology and biomedical engineering. "They embody and enhance our understanding of molecular and cellular structure and function, and reflect the work of over 100 of the Nobel laureates in chemistry and physics."
The conference, sponsored by Duke's Center for Molecular and Biomolecular Imaging-which Warren directs-and the Office of the Provost, brought together clinicians and physicists to discuss topics ranging from personalized medicine to the quick deployment of pharmaceuticals.
Unlike conventional tools, which measure qualities such as density or water content, molecular imaging directly measures changes through the use of biomarkers-substances in the blood measured to determine the prevalence of a disease. These new modes of imaging often include the use of lasers, magnets, radio waves and radioactive nuclei.
Warren said the advancement of medicine in these areas will require intensified collaborations between the generally exclusive spheres of physicists and clinicians.
"Capturing the interaction of the environment and genomics-important for the prevention and early detection of disease-will require the frequent use of minimally invasive tools," said Daniel Sullivan, associate director of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis of the National Institutes of Health.
Sullivan said advances in imaging should be used to further classify images as "systems of data," namely through the use of biomarkers.
He pointed to recent successes in early responses to cancer treatment using molecular imaging as one example of the advantages of molecular imaging over conventional imaging methods, such as X-rays.
Several speakers noted the importance of molecular imaging in the development of pharmaceuticals owing to its precision and specificity.
Susanta Sarkar, a representative for GlaxoSmithKline, spoke about the role of imaging in the development of personalized pharmaceuticals.
Personalized medicine means responding to a wider range of medical reactions, and noting these trends more accurately in the development of drugs, she said. As an example, she pointed to drugs that prompt varying responses during the early stages of diseases.
Warren, who helped organize the conference, noted the importance of advances in imaging for the introduction of medicines. "Nowhere is the need for such capabilities more dramatic... than in the pharmaceutical industry," he wrote in an e-mail. "The basic issue is that for every successful drug brought to market, many thousands of other candidates had to be manufactured or extracted and screened."
Warren added that advances in imaging are pivotal to early detection of side effects and efficacy in order to prevent costly setbacks during the late stages in drug trials, when differences between animals' and humans' reactions to drugs are noted and drugs are approved or rejected.
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