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Inflammation plays a critical role in the development, progression and clinical outcomes for a number of human diseases, including highly prevalent cardiovascular, neurological and oncological diseases. Despite this central role, clinical biomarkers for quantification of regional tissue inflammation in vivo and non-invasively with high sensitivity and specificity are not available. In this project, we propose to address this clinical need by developing a new imaging biomarker with potential to transform clinical diagnosis, management of a plethora of human diseases, drug development and treatment of multiple diseases. Our new imaging biomarker targets the 18kDa translocator protein
Project Highlights?
January 2026
Edinburgh Innovations press release New Imaging Tool for Inflammation proves Suitable for Human use
January 2023
Edinburgh Innovations press release New imaging tool to understand inflammation with additional press coverage HERE, HERE and HERE
January 2023
This MRC DPFS award featured as Clinical News & Research Story of the January 2023 Smart Brief from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).
November 2023
Our innovative research being disseminated ‘across the pond’.
Our innovative research presented at the prestigious Feindel Brain Imaging Lecture Series at The Neuro, McGill University, Canada.
Publications
Khaing PH, MacAskill MG, Xiao J, Liu S, Gu Z, Sun X, Xu T, Koglin N, Stephens AW, Newby DE, Guan Y, McErlain H, Sutherland A, Tamagnan GD, Xie F, Tavares AAS. First human whole-body biodistribution and dosimetry analysis of [18F]LW223, a novel TSPO PET radiotracer. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2026 May;53(6):3951-3959. doi: 10.1007/s00259-025-07722-0. Epub 2026 Jan 10. PMID: 41518399; PMCID: PMC13121222.
This work is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC).