Chief scientist at NCI to speak at Imaging in Drug Development conference

January 25, 2008, Monrovia, CA--Dr. Hisataka Kobayashi, Chief Scientist of Molecular Imaging at the National Cancer Institute, will speak at GTCbio's 3rd Imaging in Pre-clinical & Clinical Drug Development conference (March 17-18, 2008, San Diego, CA). Dr. Kobayashi will discuss the development of environment-sensitive "smart" imaging probes for super-specific cancer cell detection.

A major goal of targeted molecular imaging of cancer is to improve the sensitivity and specificity so that even minimal clusters of aberrant cells can be detected in vivo thus permitting earlier intervention. Because the target--in this case a tumor--is only detectable in reference to its background, the most common strategies to improve imaging involve increasing the signal from the target tissue while assuming the background signal will remain constant. One strategy to achieve highly specific and sensitive monitoring of targeted cancer cells, would be to combine the desirable target binding characteristics of a monoclonal antibody with a signaling molecule, which is only activated within cancer cells, thus reducing background signal.

Dr. Kobayahsi's presentation will look at new cancer-cell specific molecular imaging strategy for performing super-specific cancer detection, the design and synthesis of fluorescence-based activatable "smart" probes for the cancer molecular imaging, the detection of micro-metastasis of cancer with super-high sensitivity, practical clinical application for endoscopy-based imaging or surgery-assistance, and possible real-time specific monitoring of viable cancer cells under treatment

The 3rd Imaging in Pre-clinical & Clinical Drug Development conference features presentations on novel imaging methods and technology, imaging in drug development and therapy, imaging applications in CNS, imaging applications in oncology and imaging applications in the cardiovascular system. Presenting organizations at the conference include GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Abbott, Schering-Plough, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GE Healthcare, Siemens, NIH, UCLA, and 3-D Imaging.

For more information, visit www.gtcbio.com.