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Molecular Imaging in Nanotechnology and Theranostics

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Abstract

The fields of biomedical nanotechnology and theranostics have enjoyed exponential growth in recent years. The “Molecular Imaging in Nanotechnology and Theranostics” (MINT) Interest Group of the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) was created in order to provide a more organized and focused forum on these topics within the WMIS and at the World Molecular Imaging Conference (WMIC). The interest group was founded in 2015 and was officially inaugurated during the 2016 WMIC. The overarching goal of MINT is to bring together the many scientists who work on molecular imaging approaches using nanotechnology and those that work on theranostic agents. MINT therefore represents scientists, labs, and institutes that are very diverse in their scientific backgrounds and areas of expertise, reflecting the wide array of materials and approaches that drive these fields. In this short review, we attempt to provide a condensed overview over some of the key areas covered by MINT. Given the breadth of the fields and the given space constraints, we have limited the coverage to the realm of nanoconstructs, although theranostics is certainly not limited to this domain. We will also focus only on the most recent developments of the last 3–5 years, in order to provide the reader with an intuition of what is “in the pipeline” and has potential for clinical translation in the near future.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the investigators who joined us as Founding Members of the MINT interest group for their valuable contribution to the field. Namely, Silvio Aime, James Basilion, Michelle Bradbury, Heike Daldrup-Link, Katherine Ferrara, Sam Gambir, Jan Grimm, Jesse Jokerst, Kimberly Kelly, Fabian Kiessling, Twan Lammers, Jonathan Liu, Matthias Nahrendorf, Vasilis Ntziachristos, Manuel Perez, Bernd Pichler, Mikhail G. Shapiro, Andrew Tsourkas, and Ralph Weissleder. The following funding sources (to M.F.K.) are acknowledged: NIH R01 EB017748 and K08 CA16396; M.F.K. is a Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator supported (in part) by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (DRR-29-14); Pershing Square Sohn Prize by the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance; MSKCC Center for Molecular Imaging & Nanotechnology (CMINT) Grant; MSKCC Technology Development Grant; Mr. William H. and Mrs. Alice Goodwin and the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research and The Experimental Therapeutics Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Acknowledgements are also extended to the grant-funding support provided by the MSKCC NIH Core Grant (P30-CA008748).

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Correspondence to Moritz F. Kircher.

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M.F.K. is an inventor on several pending patents related to Raman nanoparticles, Raman detection, and theranostic hardware, as well as radiolabeling of silica particles, and is a cofounder of RIO Imaging, Inc., a startup company that has licensed several of these patents.

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Andreou, C., Pal, S., Rotter, L. et al. Molecular Imaging in Nanotechnology and Theranostics. Mol Imaging Biol 19, 363–372 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-017-1056-z

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