Functional and Molecular Imaging

Our concept of application and development of multimodal imaging in personalised medicine enables a better understanding of the disease itself and its course. Our project plan will improve the understanding of complex genetic, metabolomic, physiologic, and pathologic principles and changes in the long run, and therefore help us to design new therapies. Imaging approaches are predestined to explain such complex connections. Because of the already initiated network with the pathology as well with the bioinformatic and systems biology department we are able to diagnose and treat the individual clinical picture, including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer of various organs, gastroenterological symptoms, even rare diseases. Of special importance is the development of SOPs that can be the basis for advanced diagnostic and therapy procedures. Not least sophisticated imaging technologies in the field of personalised medicine will lead to new diagnosis and therapy design even if the clinical phenotype seems to be the same. Modern, multimodal imaging methods as PET/CT and PET/MR enable us to obtain morphological, functional and molecular information with one single process suitable for pre-clinical and clinical questions. This facilitates the exchange of information and makes them usable for clinicians as well as for scientists. The controlling developments of these multimodal imaging technologies were amongst others established here at the university hospital of Tübingen. Now we can use them in clinical routines. Additionally the development of tracer substances broadened the area of application within the personalised medicine. The application of these technologies provides the opportunity to measure the efficacy of new therapies in an unimagined precision, what is of an inevitable importance concerning the application of so-called molecular medicine.