A forum on molecular imaging probes was held as part of the 2021 National Conference on Molecular Imaging from Dec 27 to 28 in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong province.

Focusing on the imaging and application of different molecular probes in a variety of diseases, the forum attracted renowned experts and scholars in China to talk about the research progress of molecular probes for different diseases and disease stages, including intraoperative navigation molecular probes, tumor microenvironment-targeted molecular probes, near-infrared II optical molecular probes, photoacoustic molecular probes and molecular probes for nuclear medicine.

The forum was chaired by Zheng Hairong, a research fellow and vice-president of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Liu Zhaofei, a professor from the Department of Radioactive Medicine of the School of Basic Medical Sciences at Peking University (PKU).

Cheng Zhen, director of the Molecular Imaging Center of the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica at the CAS, delivers a report titled Biomedical Application of Near-infrared II Imaging Technology. [Photo/BSC Molecular Imaging Academic Subgroup]

Cheng Zhen, director of the Molecular Imaging Center of the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica at the CAS, delivered a report titled Biomedical Application of Near-infrared II Imaging Technology. Professor Cheng explained the development of molecular imaging probes and the advantages of near-infrared II probes’ utilization in biological imaging. He also demonstrated the potential of near-infrared II probes in clinical medicine through his research group’s studies on the design and application of small molecule near-infrared II probes.

Dai Zhifei, a professor from the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the College of Future Technology at PKU, shares the research achievements of his team in ultrasound contrast agents.[Photo/BSC Molecular Imaging Academic Subgroup]

Dai Zhifei, a professor from the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the College of Future Technology at PKU, shared the research achievements of his team in the field of ultrasound contrast agents. After more than 10 years of efforts, Dai’s team has developed an ultrasound contrast agent with independent intellectual property rights. At present, the contrast agent is undergoing phase I clinical trials.

Liang Gaolin, a chair professor from SEU, gives a report on CBT-Cys click reaction-based imaging analysis. [Photo/BSC Molecular Imaging Academic Subgroup]

Liang Gaolin, a chair professor from Southeast University (SEU) and deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, reported on CBT-Cys click reaction-based imaging analysis. Liang’s team combined the CBT-Cys click reaction in cells with molecular imaging and realized the highly sensitive biological imaging analysis of major diseases with high expression of several biomarkers (tumor, apoptosis, etc.) by leveraging the fact that the click reaction can amplify the imaging signal.

Zhang Can, dean of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of China Pharmaceutical University, gave a speech entitled Opportunities and Challenges Faced by Living Cell Drug Preparations in theTreatment of Solid Tumors and mentioned the latest studies by his team in living cell drug preparations, which offers a method for tumor treatment.

Wang Xuemei, a professor from the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering at SEU, shares studies by her team in self-assembly nanoprobes. [Photo/BSC Molecular Imaging Academic Subgroup]

Wang Xuemei, a professor from the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering at SEU, gave a report titled Research on Molecular Recognition and Precise Diagnosis and Treatment Based on Biological Self-assembly Functional Nanoprobesand shared studies by her team in self-assembly nanoprobes, providing a new direction for the development of nanoprobes.

Liu Zhaofei, a professor from the Department of Radioactive Medicine of the School of Basic Medical Sciences at PKU, speaks at the forum. [Photo/BSC Molecular Imaging Academic Subgroup]

Liu Zhaofei shared his latest research achievements in tumor-specific nuclear medicine imaging probes.