Abstract
One of the key goals of the Society of Nuclear Medicine's Center for Molecular Imaging Innovation and Translation (CMIIT, formerly the Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence) is to highlight and explore emerging technologies that may be novel, experimental, and possibly controversial. Summits hosted by CMIIT serve a key role in the community by bringing together the appropriate experts to explore all facets of these emerging technologies, and therefore, a summit to discuss nanomedicine and molecular imaging was organized. That summit was held at the SNM Midwinter meeting, Albuquerque, NM, on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2010. The 2-day summit brought together academic, government, and industry experts from a spectrum of disciplines to explore a topic that may have great application for diagnosing and treating disease in the future. The keynote lecture on day 1, given by Vicki Colvin, PhD, Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger professor of chemistry and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice University, described the environmental and health effects of nanomaterials. Dr. Colvin emphasized that nanotechnology-enabled systems offer great promise for solving difficult environmental and biological problems. She explained how their small size, high surface areas, and unique properties all provide opportunity for use-driven science and engineering research.
This keynote address was the opening of two exciting sessions that day, which included nanomaterials and life cycle analysis as well as risk management. Presentations included advances in nanomaterials, their functionalization and characterization, applications in bioimaging and therapy, nanotoxicology, and regulatory issues associated with the disposal of nanomaterials.
Day 2 of the summit discussed regulatory considerations for nanotechnology, the current and potential uses of nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and the potential benefits and risks of using nanoparticles as a therapeutic delivery system. Although new applications for nanotechnology in medicine are being discovered at a tremendous pace, the health, safety, and environmental issues are arising almost as quickly. Peter S. Conti, MD, PhD, professor of radiology, biomedical engineering, and pharmacy at the University of Southern California, described how noninvasive imaging technologies have the potential to address some of these issues. Wendy Sanhai, PhD, senior scientific advisor at the FDA, described the regulatory considerations and focused on ways to advance the science of nanotechnology and nanomedicine.
This year's summit made critical strides towards examining some of the key issues related to the rapid growth and evolving science of nanomedicine. This was the SNM's fourth annual Molecular Imaging summit, but the first program dedicated to examining the potential of nanomedicine. As a result, this special issue of Molecular Imaging was proposed. This issue includes both research and review articles that describe several flavors of nanoparticles, their role as therapeutic and imaging agents, and a review on the state of play of the Emerging Nanomaterial Governance System.