Breakthrough: In Vivo Real-Time Positron Emission Particle Tracking & Single Article PET

With an accumulation of four years to manifest in the published works, the latest issues of Nature Nanotechnology reveal the effort to isolate a single radiolabeled particle, tracking its location inside a mouse using Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT)-- a technique that had only been previously used for large scale engineering applications – as well as Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
 
So what are possible applications of in vivo PEPT  in the future? According to Rafael T.M. de Rosales, a chemist specializing in medical imaging, and the corresponding author at Kings’ College London perhaps investigation into whole-body blood flow dynamics with unique applications such as the study of complex multiphase flow of blood, is crucial in clinical physiology and drug delivery. Additional applications could be the use of single particles for high-precision PEPT-guided radiotherapy or surgery and tracking single cells.

 
The corresponding author cited an amazing tour de force by Dr Juan Pellico with the support of an outstanding multidisciplinary team at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King's College London and the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. Special thanks to Mediso Medical Imaging Systems for their support to extract the required data from the nanoScan scanner.