PARTNERSHIPS
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PARTNERSHIPS

Driven by its missions of patient care and research, American academic medicine is renowned globally as a major force in the development of new drug and device-based therapies. This valuable progress is made possible by a wide range of activities, including basic science research, animal investigations, and human clinical trials.

Imaging biomarkers have the potential to positively impact virtually all levels of research and innovation in academic medicine. In basic science research, imaging with advanced modalities such as MR and PET allows identification and quantification of physiological processes, such as brain function with MR spectroscopy. These same modalities, together with experimental methods such as molecular imaging, provide insight into the pathophysiology of disease, as seen with nuclear and optical imaging methods that demonstrate tumor metabolism and tumor-associated angiogenesis.

Imaging biomarkers may also assist academic researchers and scientists to more efficiently assess promising new therapies. In pre-clinical animal work, biomarkers hold the promise of more detailed analysis without resorting to animal sacrifice and histological analysis, and may allow animals to serve as their own controls. Given the increasing costs and ethical considerations associated with animal experimentation, the benefit of imaging biomarkers is obvious.

Appropriate application of imaging biomarkers in both clinical trials and in clinical use is yet another promising area. Imaging finds offer the promise of offering more timely and quantitative data than traditional trial endpoints of morbidity and mortality. Use of MRI to follow cerebral white matter lesions in multiple sclerosis patients in Betaseron trials and CT scan to assess liver tumor volume in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with Herceptin are two examples of the successful application of imaging technology to clinical trials. Still, this and other current clinical trial use of imaging biomarkers is only the surface of their vast potential in making more accurate decisions on new therapies sooner and at less cost.

Beyond their application in medical research, validated imaging biomarkers hold the promise of improved patient care. The same biomarkers that demonstrate the presence or severity of disease in the trial setting may be used to follow therapeutic effects in patients, providing healthcare providers accurate information on patient response and allowing individualized treatment that achieves maximum therapeutic benefit. Such imaging biomarker-based paradigms promise better patient treatment with less complications and more efficient use of costly therapeutic resources.


SERVICES

The Center for Biomarkers in Imaging, built on the extensive imaging and research resources of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Radiology as well as the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, is intended to catalyze the academic community’s biomarker efforts. Through the use of its web-based imaging biomarkers catalog, educational efforts, and continued imaging biomarker research, the Center aims to promote the appropriate use of existing imaging biomarkers in research and patient care, as well as foster the validation and discovery of additional biomarkers. With the collaboration of the academic medical community, the Center for Biomarkers in Imaging will realize the full potential of biomarkers in imaging, ultimately improving the health of patients worldwide.

Please feel free to contact us for additional information. (info@biomarkers.org)