The activities of the group are mainly focused on the development and clinical validation of innovative approaches for tumour diagnosis and therapy using molecular targets and radiolabeled probes. The major area of interest is the biological and functional characterization of human tumors tracing cellular processes underlying tumour growth and progression as well as tumour response to treatment. In particular, the group has been working for several years on functional imaging of multidrug resistance in cancer using well-known tracers as molecular substrates for certain drug transporters. This approach has been validated in a clinical setting showing that it is able to identify patients who will become refractory to subsequent chemotherapy. Recent studies evaluated the relationship between tumour uptake of lipophilic cations and alterations of the apoptotic pathway focusing the attention on the differential expression of Bcl-2 family members which integrate death signals at the mitochondrial level.

Several receptor/ligand systems have been also investigated both in vivo and in vitro. Receptor imaging is currently performed in our center with commercially available gamma-emitting compounds. Newly synthesized ligands such as regulatory peptides are also being evaluated in a pre-clinical setting for defining the binding properties and kinetics. Basic research studies have been conducted in vitro on specific receptors involved in the mechanism of invasion and metastases such as the urokinase receptor. In this respect, ongoing projects aim at modulating the expression of such receptors at the transcriptional level by using double-stranded synthetic oligonucleotides containing the target sequences of specific transcriptional activators.

The group has access to state of the art equipment for Nuclear Medicine imaging including a PET-CT and a recently installed micro-PET as well as to a basic science laboratory for in vitro experimental work.