This program is comprised of projects that employ novel molecular and functional imaging techniques to visualize various aspects of diabetes and obesity, endocrinology, metabolism and metabolic diseases. The emphasis will be on in vivo techniques (PET, MRI, Ultrasound, CT, optical tomography etc.) with applications serving to tag tissues and cells of interest; study biological processes in vivo; diagnose disease; or monitor progress during therapy. These will be studies either to monitor physiological or metabolic processes, rate of metabolism, blood flow, sites of hormone action, etc., using imaging and spectroscopic techniques or to identify cell types using molecular imaging probes. Another application might be the technology to develop a probe to identify in vivo the sites within the hypothalamus that control satiety.
For more information, contact Dr. Maren R. Laughlin, Senior Advisor for Integrative Metabolism.