Overview
Molecular imaging is an integral part of the oncological research, and plays critical roles in cancer detection, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. Imaging technology continues to evolve to meet the rising needs in patient care. Despite recent advances in imaging resolution and quality, the complex and dynamic nature of tumor evolution necessitates for improved accuracy and precision in molecular targeted imaging to observe functional changes in a tumor and its microenvironment in real time. A challenge in achieving precision cancer imaging remains to be the development of site-specific and target-oriented delivery of imaging probes and tools. The rapid progress of synthetic biology offers new opportunities for the design of novel imaging agents and platforms to achieve improved selectivity and sensitivity output.
Synthetic biology is a design-driven discipline that centers on engineering biologics with expanded and enhanced properties to perform novel functions through synthesizing of innovative molecules and repurposing naturally existing molecules and structures. It emphasizes precise control with iterative design and refinement to engineer modular and responsive biological elements, with the ability to predict and produce a desired level of output for any given input. Over the last decade, synthetic biology tools and principles have matured tremendously and reached extraordinary levels of sophistication. The field is now beginning to bring new capabilities to molecular diagnostics, expanding the molecular detection palette and creating dynamic sensors to provide near real-time surveillance of pathological conditions.
To facilitate the reach and impact of synthetic biology on molecular cancer imaging, the Cancer Imaging Program in the NCI plans to convene a two-day virtual workshop (April 22-23, 2024) on Synthetic Biology for Molecular Imaging in Cancer. The workshop will seek input from experts in the scientific community to evaluate the potential of synthetic bioengineering methodologies in advancing molecular cancer imaging for research and clinical application. The overarching goal is to identify new opportunities, delineate the key challenges, and develop strategies to overcome these challenges. We envision this workshop will be a steppingstone to spur discussion and collaboration among scientists to match synthetic bioengineering design principles with agent and tool development in cancer imaging.
For more information, please contact:
Charles Lin, Ph.D.
Molecular Imaging Branch, Cancer Imaging Program DCTD/NCI/NIH
p.lin@nih.gov