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Using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging to elucidate the neurobiological link between cannabinoids and psychiatric disorders
Using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging to elucidate the neurobiological link between cannabinoids and psychiatric disorders
Thank you for your interest in the work of our lab. We are always open to new collaborations and have opportunities for new students. So if you like what you see on these pages, feel free to contact me (rajiv.radhakrishnan@yale.edu)
Yale PET Center Instrumentation (https://medicine.yale.edu/pet/)
What is Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging?
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is the most advanced medical imaging technique currently available, that allows us to examine molecular changes in the brain of a living person.
The technology that goes into PET imaging derives from 2 Nobel Prize winning discoveries:
George De Hevesy (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1943) "for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes.
Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield, (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1979) "for the development of computer assisted tomography." (read more here https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28401173/)
PET Imaging analysis methods
PET imaging can detect molecular changes in the brain with picomolar sensitivity (i.e. 10^(-12) mol/L).
This allows the quantification of changes in neuroreceptors (eg. D2, 5-HT2A, mGluR5), neurotransmitters (eg. dopamine), brain activity (eg. FDG), neuroinflammation (eg. microglial activation) and microstructure (eg. synaptic proteins).
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