Development and Application of New PET Radiotracers for Neuroinflammation

Neuroimaging provides a multitude of non-invasive methods to better understand the pathology and pathogenesis of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. MRI and PET not only aid in the diagnosis of diseases, but through the identification of biomarkers, can inform on a patient’s prognosis and response to treatment. This project focuses on the preclinical evaluation of novel PET radiotracers specifically targeting key aspects of neuroinflammation, such as astrocyte activation and reparative microglia. These radiotracers will be assessed through in vivo PET imaging in established animal models of neurological diseases, including epilepsy and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Imaging data will be analyzed to evaluate tracer specificity, distribution, and binding kinetics, with post-mortem immunohistochemical analysis conducted to validate PET findings. Students working on this project will gain hands-on experience in small-animal PET imaging data analysis, immunohistochemistry and neuroinflammatory biomarker quantification. This research has the potential to contribute to improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for neuroinflammatory conditions and may lead to further studies at the Honours, Master's, or PhD level.