Collaborative & Service Projects

Collaborative Projects represent partnerships between the P41 MIP Mlab and outside investigators, where core technology development is applied to address a specific biomedical or clinical research question.
Reporting Period: 06/01/2025-05/31/2026

Title	Status	Principal Investigator	Affiliation	Funding Source
New Tools to Address Chronic Disease	Established and ongoing (TR&D#3)	Seulki Lee, Ph.D.	D&D Pharmatech	Intramural funding
[18F]4FN PET Imaging of Innate Immunity Activation During Immunotherapy-Induced Adverse Events	No updates (TR&D3)	David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D.	MD Anderson Cancer Center	Intramural funding
Molecular Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Inflammation	Established and ongoing (TR&D#4)	Eric Gale, Ph.D.	Harvard/MGB	DK120663
AI Solutions for Medical Imaging and Therapy	Established and ongoing (TR&D#3)	Edward Herskovits, M.D., Ph.D.	PlenaryAI	Intramural funding
Fibrogenesis targeted manganese-based MRI contrast agent	Closed (with Funding of CP3)	Vera Hoffman, Ph.D.	Reveal Pharmaceuticals	DK134295
Tumor Microenvironment Crosstalk Drives Early Lesions in Pancreatic Cancer	Planning (recent move by Maitra to NYU)	Anirban Maitra, M.B.B.S.	New York University, Langone School of Medicine	CA274371
Unique alpha-emitting Cancer Theranostics	Planning (TR&D3)	Michael Schultz, Ph.D.	Viewpoint Molecular Targeting	Intramural funding
Optimizing Systemic Immunotherapy for Personalized Brain Metastasis Treatment	No updates (TR&D2)	Michael Lim, M.D.	Stanford University	CA261717, Project 3
Clinically Translatable MRI Reporter Genes and Imaging Methods with Ultra-high Specificity and Sensitivity	Established and ongoing (TR&D3)	Christian Farrar, Ph.D.; Assaf Gilad, Ph.D.	MGB/Michigan State University	EB031008
Small Molecule PSMA Targeted Alpha Therapy	Established and ongoing (TR&D3)	Michael Zalutsky, Ph.D.	Z-Alpha, Inc.	Intramural funding
Imaging Reporters for iPSC Tracking in Vivo	Closed	Gloria Jih, Ph.D.	Century Therapeutics	Intramural funding
Therapeutics Targeting TDP-43 to Treat Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders	Established and Ongoing (TR&D3)	Allen Reitz, Ph.D.	Fox Chase Chemical Diversity Center	AG068823
Molecular-genetics Imaging of Cancer	Under negotiation (TR&D3)	Badri Anantharaman, PhD	Earli	Intramural funding
Quantitative Brain Metrics of Long-Haul COVID	Closed (NIH terminated the program, pursued at JHU with Licia Luna)	Avindra Nath, M.D.	NINDS	Intramural Funding

Service Projects (SPs) provide investigators with imaging technology, resources, or expertise developed by the P41 MIP Mlab to advance their own independently funded research.
Reporting Period: 06/01/2025-05/31/2026

Title	Status	Principal Investigator	Affiliation	Funding Source
PET detection of CCR2 in human atherosclerosis	Yet to be established but still planned (Establishment of Cardiac PET at UT Southwestern)	Robert Gropler, M.D.	Washington University School of Medicine	HL150891
Cellular senescence network: new imaging tools for arthritis imaging	Closed	Heike Daldrup-Link, M.D., Ph.D.	Stanford University	CA268112
Molecular Imaging of Transient and Remote Activation of Brain Microglia in Vivo	Closed	Michael Michaelides, Ph.D.	National Institute of Drug Abuse	ZIADA000069, internal funding
Imaging B Cells in the Brain and Beyond: Developing an Immuno-PET Toolbox to Improve Understanding and Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis	Yet to be established but still planned	Michelle James, Ph.D.	Stanford University	NS114220
Imaging Goggles for Fluorescence-Guided Surgery	Established and ongoing (TR&D2)	Samuel Achilefu, Ph.D.	UT Southwestern Medical Center	EB030987
Characterization of Whole Brain Demyelination and Axon Damage Using High-resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging	Yet to be established but still planned	Nian Wang, Ph.D.	Indiana University	NS125020
Cell type specific genetic manipulation to dissect cholinergic interneuron function and plasticity in a symptomatic model of DYT1 dystonia	Established and ongoing (TR&D3)	William Dauer, M.D.	UT Southwestern Medical Center	NS110853 and internal funding (O'Donnell Brain Inst.)
Cell Manipulation Tools	Yet to be established but still planned	Hans-Peter Kiem, Ph.D.	Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center	DK106829
Center for Molecular Imaging Technology and Translation (CMITT)	Established and ongoing	Georges El Fakhri, Ph.D.	Harvard Medical School	EB022544
Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting of Tumor Vascular Perfusion and Acidosis	Yet to be established (TR&D1)	Mark Pagel, Ph.D.	MD Anderson Cancer Center	CA269354
Blood-brain barrier dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease: from humans to animal models	Auxiliary	Hanzhang Lu, Ph.D.	Kennedy Krieger Institute of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	AG071515
Theranostics for prostate cancer	Ongoing and Established (TR&D3)	Novartis/Advanced Accelerator Applications	Switzerland	n/a
Oncology Precision Therapeutics and Imaging Core	Auxiliary	Kenneth Olive, Ph.D.	Columbia University Health Sciences	CA013696
Polymeric nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery to treat disease	Auxiliary	Niren Shah	Cove Therapeutics (San Diego, CA)	Cove internal funding
CD90-targeted Nanoparticles for in Vivo Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy	Ongoing and established (TR&D2)	Stefan Radtke, Ph.D.; Hans-Peter Kiem, Ph.D.	Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center	HL173365

Collaborative Projects represent partnerships between the P41 MIP Mlab and outside investigators, where core technology development is applied to address a specific biomedical or clinical research question.
Reporting Period: 06/01/2025-05/31/2026

Our Mission

Both CPs and SPs support the P41 MIP Mlab's core mission: to discover, validate, educate, and translate novel molecular imaging and theranostic agents along the spectrum of cancer, inflammation, and immunity. We are especially interested in projects that:

Discover new precision imaging and theranostic agents, developed in concert with the molecular imaging community, with a focus on cancer, inflammation, and immunity
Validate these agents in relevant in vitro, in cellulo, and in vivo models
Educate the scientific community on molecular imaging and agent development, and help disseminate that knowledge
Translate the most promising technologies into clinical use

Getting Started

If your research aligns with these aims, the first step is to contact Dr. Martin Pomper directly to schedule a Teams or Zoom meeting to discuss your project and how the center's resources and expertise can support it.

Contact: Dr. Martin Pomper | Martin.Pomper@UTSouthwestern.edu

Collaborative & Service Projects

Collaborative Projects represent partnerships between the P41 MIP Mlab and outside investigators, where core technology development is applied to address a specific biomedical or clinical research question. Reporting Period: 06/01/2025-05/31/2026

Collaborative Projects represent partnerships between the P41 MIP Mlab and outside investigators, where core technology development is applied to address a specific biomedical or clinical research question.
Reporting Period: 06/01/2025-05/31/2026