Magnetic resonance imaging in drug discovery: lessons from disease areas.
Imaging technologies are presently receiving considerable attention in the pharmaceutical area owing to their potential to accelerate the drug discovery and development process. One of the principal imaging modalities is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The multiparametric nature of MRI enables anatomical, functional and even molecular information to be obtained non-invasively from intact organisms at high spatial resolution, thereby enabling a comprehensive characterization of a disease state and the corresponding drug intervention. The non-invasiveness of MRI strengthens the link between pre-clinical and clinical drug studies, making the technique attractive for pharmaceutical research.
Beckmann
Nicolau
N
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Discovery Technologies, Analytics and Imaging Sciences Unit, Lichstr. 35, WSJ-386.209, CH-4002 Basel Switzerland. nicolau.beckmann@pharma.novartis.com
Laurent
Didier
D
Tigani
Bruno
B
Panizzutti
Rogério
R
Rudin
Markus
M
D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010600:Pharmacology / Q000379:methods*