Rice University’s Department of Chemistry will soon welcome Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, who will enhance the university’s research efforts in biophysics when she joins the faculty as a professor July 1, backed by a $6 million recruitment grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

A novel PET radiotracer can accurately detect a wide range of mold species that are linked to dangerous infections, according to new research presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2025 Annual Meeting. The imaging agent has the potential to dramatically enhance the diagnosis and monitoring of invasive mold infections in patients.

A novel molecular imaging agent targeting glypican-3 (GPC3) has demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in detecting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), including tumors smaller than one centimeter, according to results from a pilot clinical study. The agent, ⁶⁸Ga-aGPC3-scFv, coded as XH06, was shown to be safe, well-tolerated, and effective at providing high-contrast images of GPC3-positive liver tumors, offering a promising new tool for early diagnosis and staging of HCC—one of the most lethal forms of liver cancer. This research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2025 Annual Meeting.

A first-in-class peptide-based PET tracer, ¹⁸F-AlF-NOTA-PCP2, can effectively measure PD-L1 expression in patients with head and neck cancers, outperforming the conventional tracer ¹⁸F-FDG. ¹⁸F-AlF-NOTA-PCP2 uptake strongly correlated with PD-L1 levels, highlighting the tracer’s potential to improve patient stratification and guide personalized treatment strategies. This research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) 2025 Annual Meeting, and the grouping of images comparing ¹⁸F-AlF-NOTA-PCP2 and ¹⁸F-FDG uptake has been selected as the 2025 SNMMI Henry N. Wagner, Jr., Image of the Year.

In a significant leap forward for successful cancer surgery, researchers at the University of Missouri and collaborators have developed a new imaging probe to help surgeons more accurately identify and remove aggressive tumors during operations.