Meser Ali,
Senior Staff Investigator, Director, Cellular and Molecular Imaging Lab, Department of Neurology
Specifically, my research work focuses in developing chemical synthesis methods to create biomedical imaging agents from bifunctional macrocyclic ligands that tightly bind to clinically used gadolinium (Gd3+) and other lanthanide metals (Eu3+,Tm3+, Yb3+) for a wide range of MR methods for molecular imaging of cancer. These bifunctional imaging agents have been conjugated with dendrimers, peptides and other proteins for potential MRI, SPECT and Biosensor Imaging of Redundant Deviation in Shifts (BIRDS). My work resulted in the development of a series of new dendrimer-based MRI contrast agents that are detected by standard MR relativity methods or new MRI methods based on Paramagnetic Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (PARACEST) and BIRDS. My developments of small nano-sized molecular imaging agents that target primary glioblastoma multiform (GBM) selectively. We have demonstrated that the intravenously administered dendrimer-based small nano-sized paramagnetic nanopartilces are able to traverse pores of the blood-brain tumor barrier of GBM. I have also used state-of-the-art MRI methods to study tumor progression and the early responses to chemotherapies in pre-clinical animal models.
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