JSMI conference preface

Starting tomorrow the second Japanese Society for Molecular Imaging (JSMI) conference is going to be held at my present abode city of Fukui. I am glad to say the founder of the society is my chief supervisor, Prof. Fujibayashi. The first conference was held at Kyoto last year and our group in partnership with Kyoto university were the hosts. However, in this year we are the sole host of the conference. Hopefully the intense preparations done by our group for hosting it should yield success.

President of India-Speech at IIT-Kharagpur

The President of India, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam gave a speech/lecture (Lecture 1 and Lecture 2) at the inaugaration of Dr. BC Roy multispeciality research center at IIT Kharagpur. It really is impressive and stimulating. He asserts the importance of scientific research in developing a nation's economy. The talk also features scientific but humane attitude of eminent nobel lauerates from India and abroad. The paths to India's future exhaustively described in Lecture 2 is exemplary. I believe each Indian should contribute to his vision of seeing India as a developed nation before 2020. Kudos to you Sir!

Imaging at the Molecular Level - Sam Gambhir's podcast

Here's a podcast interview of Dr. Sam Gambhir briefing on impact of Molecular Imaging to the current medicine and healthcare of future. The interview was conducted by Lumera, a polymer nanotechnology corporation.
The key points Dr. Gambhir emphasized was the current knowledge of molecular interactions occuring in the cellular machinery is still insufficient for effective practice of medicine. The aim of MI research should focus to decipher such cellular interactions in their native state. In general the master controller of cellular processes is constituted by DNA or genetic makeup of the cell. Rapid advances in human genome sequencing and other imaging or biomarker diagnostic technologies could facilitate therapeutic interventions at earlier time points and both diagnostic tests and therapy options be customized to the individual patient.

IIT-Kharagpur scientist patents hydrogen-harvesting technique

The scientists (my respected teachers) of biotechnology department from my former Institute, IIT-Kharagpur (No.1 tech college of India) has patented a new mehodology of harvesting hydrogen. With the rising energy demands around the world and especially in India, it is imperative to look for alternative renewable energy resources. Hydrogen fuel is one such which is eco-friendly and could be a relatively safe biofuel. For more details look here.

Molecular Imaging Centre in Bangalore

I am greatly surprised to know that Bangalore, my hometown is the first to establish a molecular imaging centre in India. Thanks to GE healthcare and healthcare global enterprises (HCG) for taking the initiative in the right spirits and time. Though the development in molecular imaging is rapid in west or in east such as here in Japan, it still had to begin in India. Hope the waves of this new health discipline spreads across the shores of other Indian cities in the years to come.
I wish even the Indian government takes a keen interest to foster such centers in the public sector.

Molecular imaging expands its boundaries

The highlights of the recently concluded SNM meeting in which molecular imaging research had been given a profound boost are well summarized in the following link.
Molecular imaging expands its boundaries - MedicalPhysicsWeb
Key take-home points are

• FDG-PET can accurately identify a patient's response to neoadjuvant therapy for esophageal cancer. (MUNICON trial of 110 patients)
• FLT-PET can determine brain tumor (recurrent malignant gliomas) patients' response to drugs within one or two weeks of treatment initiation. (UCLA trial of 19 patients)
• Combined myocardial perfusion SPECT+64-slice CT angiography can increase the accuracy of coronary artery disease diagnosis.
• PET-CT using a novel CT contrast agent (N1177 - a macrophage specific nanoparticulate contrast agent) can detect high risk atherosclerotic plaques.
• PET-CT imaging can effectively diagnose graft infection and differentiate it from surrounding soft-tissue infection. (A study in Israel on 39 patients with 69 vascular grafts)
• PET-CT is invaluable in the management of patients with suspected recurrent ovarian carcinoma. (A multicenter study in Australia on 90 patients)
• PET-CT is invaluable for non-invasively monitoring Crohn's disease. (A study in Belgium on 22 patients)

We Forget to Remember

Forgetfulness (Amnesia) is not considered as a disorder as long as one forgets the unimportant things and retains the important ones. In other words, to retain or remember a thing requires a degree of importance given to it which always is subjective. Recollecting the past at times is easy for some or complex for others. This depends on how an individual's brain stores the information through its various neural processes. Memory in general also depends on associative informations that is stored along with the actual information, one of which is emotion. In a recent study published online in Nature Neuroscience, using functional MRI the authors analyze how the amnesia towards useless information favors remembering useful information. Read the news article here We Forget to Remember.
The "title" and 'abstract' of the original published article are as follows:
"Decreased demands on cognitive control reveal the neural processing benefits of forgetting"
'Remembering often requires the selection of goal-relevant memories in the face of competition from irrelevant memories. Although there is a cost of selecting target memories over competing memories (increased forgetting of the competing memories), here we report neural evidence for the adaptive benefits of forgetting—namely, reduced demands on cognitive control during future acts of remembering. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during selective retrieval showed that repeated retrieval of target memories was accompanied by dynamic reductions in the engagement of functionally coupled cognitive control mechanisms that detect (anterior cingulate cortex) and resolve (dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) mnemonic competition. Strikingly, regression analyses revealed that this prefrontal disengagement tracked the extent to which competing memories were forgotten; greater forgetting of competing memories was associated with a greater decline in demands on prefrontal cortex during target remembering. These findings indicate that, although forgetting can be frustrating, memory might be adaptive because forgetting confers neural processing benefits.'

Recently I came across one more interesting area of cognitive research called "Qualia", a psychological property related to sensual perception, through an article in Japan times. Its amazing to research how different neuronal properties influence the perception, state of mind and memory in an individual. Reading the article made me believe that neuroscientists in general need to possess philosophical thoughts to postulate neuronal activities.

Definition of Molecular Imaging

A new (standard) definition of Molecular Imaging is formulated by Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence (MICoE) standard definitions Task Force and SNM.
"Molecular imaging is the visualization, characterization, and measurement of biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in humans and other living systems. To elaborate; Molecular imaging typically includes 2- or 3-dimensional imaging as well as quantification over time. The techniques used include radiotracer imaging/nuclear medicine, MR imaging, MR spectroscopy,optical imaging, ultrasound,and others."
The group also defined related terminologies:
"Molecular imaging agents are probes used to visualize, characterize, and measure biological processes in living systems. Both endogenous molecules and exogenous probes can be molecular imaging agents."
"Molecular imaging instrumentation comprises tools that enable visualization and quantification in space and over time of signals from molecular imaging agents."
"Molecular imaging quantification is the determination of regional concentrations of molecular imaging agents and biological parameters. Further, molecular imaging quantification provides measurements of processes at molecular and cellular levels. This quantification is a key element of molecular imaging data and image analysis,especially for inter- and intrasubject comparisons."

Other key statements regarding MI were

• it personalizes patient care such as in several cardiovascular, cancer and neurological disorders.
• it is useful in drug discovery and development --to characterize pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.

For exhaustive information read here.

NEW WEBPAGE of Society of Nuclear Medicine

A new webpage of SNM is released from today coinciding with the start of 2007 annual meeting. It looks brilliant with easily browsable categories, predominantly using latest functionalities of flashplayer. Browse n see!

World's First MR-PET machine

Siemens has taken the imaging world by a surprise introduction of world's first MR-PET machine. Siemens Demonstrates World's First System Capable Of Simultaneous Imaging Of The Brain By MRI And PET
The combination of high resolution imaging platform of MRI and high sensitive imaging platform of PET was always a dream choice of imaging for medical practitioners. Siemens has truly paved the way for adding a cap to the feather of already popular PET-CT. Will this bring another revolution in medical imaging? But it definitely takes imaging closer to molecular levels--a revolution for Molecular imaging.
For now, have a look of the first human MR-PET images at Siemens website.