In Vivo Preclinical Molecular Imaging: From the Laboratory Bench to the Patient.

Preclinical molecular imaging plays a key role in the study of diseases and the development, evaluation, andvalidation of novel treatment and diagnostic techniques. The actual aim is to facilitate the translation of innovative therapies and diagnostic agents into patients by providing in vivo proof-of-principle data in animal models of diseases and accordingly match some of the legal requirements before human clinical trials. The real power of preclinical imaging stems from the fact that in vivo data are non-invasively collected, thus making longitudinal studies possible. The evolution of the disease or the actual impact of innovative treatments can be evaluated in the same animal over a long period of time. The major modalities used in preclinical molecular imaging (all present in our laboratory) are the positron emission tomography (microPET), the X-ray tomodensitometry (microCT) and the magnetic resonance imaging (microMRI). The GIGA-CRC In vivo Imaging at ULg is a multidisciplinary laboratory which relies on a medical cyclotron for radioisotope productions, a radiochemistry unit for the development of new radiopharmaceuticals and process automation, a GMP unit for radiopharmaceutical productions, a preclinical imaging unit and a clinical imagingplatform (with MRI, PET, EEG, TMS, . . . ). All expertise and qualified staff are present on site. Our laboratory has all necessary permission and approval for radiopharmaceutical productions and human clinical trials. During this presentation, we will take as an example the development of the first SV2A radioligand [18F]UCB-H (a-b) to illustrate how we can bring new ideas from the laboratory bench to the patient (Bretin, F., et al. Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging Res. 2013, 3, 35; Warnock, G., et al. J. Nucl. Med. 2014, 55, 1336–1341).