title: The role of molecular imaging in modern drug development.
abstract: Drug development represents a highly complex, inefficient and costly process. Over the past decade, the widespread use of nuclear imaging, owing to its functional and molecular nature, has proven to be a determinant in improving the efficiency in selecting the candidate drugs that should either be abandoned or moved forward into clinical trials. This helps not only with the development of safer and effective drugs but also with the shortening of time-to-market. The modern concept and future trends concerning molecular imaging will assumedly be hybrid or multimodality imaging, including combinations between high sensitivity and functional (molecular) modalities with high spatial resolution and morphological techniques.
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Department, High Institute for Allied Health Technologies, Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ESTSP.IPP), Vila Nova de Gaia 4400-330, Portugal.
authors.forename: Lídia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cunha
authors.affiliation: Nanobiotechnology &In Vivo Imaging Center, Semmelweis University, Budapest H-1094, Hungary.
authors.forename: Krisztián
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Szigeti
authors.affiliation: CROmed Ltd, H-1047 Budapest Baross u. 91-95, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Domokos
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mathé
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Department, High Institute for Allied Health Technologies, Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ESTSP.IPP), Vila Nova de Gaia 4400-330, Portugal; IsoPor, SA, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: lfm@estsp.ipp.pt.
authors.forename: Luís F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Metello
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D011485:Protein Binding / Q000502:physiology; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents