Accomplishments

Timeline of Our Accomplishments

1974

Invention of the PET scanner -- Drs. M. Phelps and E. Hoffman

1975

Invention of the human PET scanner -- Drs. M. Phelps and E. Hoffman

1977

First physical identification and characterization of the epidermal growth factor receptor -- Dr. H. Herschman

First clinical PET center -- Drs. M. Phelps and E. Hoffman

1980

Identification of S-100 protein as a biomarker for metastatic melanoma -- Dr. H. Herschman

Identification of protein tyrosine kinases -Dr. O. Witte

1981

First mapping of metabolic responses in the human brain to tasks and stimuli with PET -- Drs. M. Phelps, J. Mazziotta, and D. Kuhl

1982

Cerebral Protein syntheses determination in humans with L-[1-11C] Leucine with PET  -- Drs. M. Phelps and J. Barrio

First PET stress rest myocardial perfusion imaging with noninvasive detection of subcritical coronary stenoses in animals and patients -- Dr. H. Schelbert

1984

Founder and Director of Institute for Molecular Medicine (IMED) -- Dr. M. Phelps

Invention of PC controlled automated radiosynthesizer for PET probes -- Drs. J. Barrio and N. Satyamurthy

Identifying the Bcr-Abl CML oncogene -- Dr. O. Witte

1986

Discovery of the "myocardial perfusion metabolism mismatch" as a metabolic hallmark of myocardial viability, subsequently referred to in cardiology as "myocardial hibernation" -- Dr. H. Schelbert

S-100 protein as a biomarker for amelanotic melanoma -- Dr. H. Herschman 

1989

Founder and Director of the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging -- Dr. M. Phelps

First noninvasive quantification of regional myocardial blood in humans, using N-13 ammonia and dynamic PET imaging -- Dr. H. Schelbert

1990

Development of whole body PET imaging -- Drs. M. Dahlbom, E. Hoffman, M. Phelps 

Brain amyloid and tau neuroaggregate PET imaging in living subjects -- Drs. J. Barrio and N. Satyamurthy

First dedicated PET scanner for large animals -- Drs. M. Phelps and E. Hoffman

1991

Cloning of the Cyclooxygenase 2 gene -- Dr. H. Herschman

1992

Founder and Chair, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology; includes clinical Division of Nuclear Medicine and PET -- Dr. M. Phelps

1993

Conduct first clinical gene therapy trial on the West Coast -- Dr. J. Economou

Identification of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) as a major target of autoimmunity in mouse type 1 diabetes -- Dr. D. Kaufman

Identification of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase in X-linked agammaglobulinemia -- Dr. O. Witte

1995

Identification of Synaptotagmin 4 as a depolarization-induced neuronal protein that modulates memory, learning and mood -- Dr. H. Herschman

1996

Hypoxia as a physiological selective force for p53 mutation -- Dr. T. Graeber

Demonstration that a GAD-based vaccine could prevent type 1 diabetes in mice -- Dr. D. Kaufman

1997

Elected to the National Academy of Sciences -- Dr. O. Witte

Prostate Stem Cell Antigen as a target for prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy -- Dr. O. Witte

Invention of microPET scanner for small animals -- Drs. S. Cherry, A. Chatziioannou, and M. Phelps 

1998

Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology for identification and mechanisms of action of nitric oxide -- Dr. L. Ignarro

The discovery and regulation of Cyclooxygenase 2 expression in human lung cancer -- Drs. S. Dubinett and H. Herschman

1999

Demonstrated PIP3 as the major intracellular target of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene -- Dr. H. Wu

Identification of GABA receptors on immune cells -- Dr. D. Kaufman

Elected to the National Academy of Sciences; Enrico Fermi Presidential Award from President Clinton -- Dr. M. Phelps

Elected to the National Academy of Sciences -- Dr. L. Ignarro

PET reporter gene-PET reporter probe non-invasive imaging -- Drs. H. Herschman, M. Phelps, J. Barrio

2000

Engineered antibody fragments as imaging probes for immunoPET -- Dr. A. Wu

2001

Elucidated a strong link between PTEN controlled stem cell function and tumorigenesis  -- Dr. H. Wu

The first microarray study of neural stem cells -- Drs. H. Kornblum and D. Geschwind

Algorithm for detecting autocrine feedback signaling in cancers from gene expression profiles -- Dr. T. Graeber

Development of tumor-selective retroviral replicating vector system -- Dr. N. Kasahara

2002

First study to demonstrate impact of FDG PET cancer patient management -- Dr. J. Czernin

Genome-wide voxelation expression maps of the brain -- Dr. D. Smith

The in vivo demonstration in humans of the mirror neuron system -- Dr. J. Mazziotta

2004

GABA administration inhibits inflammatory responses and prevents type 1 diabetes in mice -- Dr. D. Kaufman

2006

PET reporter gene expression used for tracking gene therapy in cancer patients -- Drs. J. Barrio, S. Gambhir and M. Phelps

PINK1 and PARKIN, two genes mediating Parkinson’s disease, function in a common genetic pathway to regulate mitochondrial integrity -- Dr. M. Guo

Specific SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase inhibitor (the first for a field of ~2 decades) -- Dr. J. Huang

Identification of binding sites for general anesthetics on the GABAA receptor -- Dr. R. Olsen

Development of the first probablistic population atlas of the human brain -- Dr. J. Mazziotta

2007

GABAA receptors mediate both acute and chronic effects of ethanol -- Dr. R. Olsen

F-18 labeled engineered antibody fragments for rapid PET imaging -- Dr. A. Wu

DARTS method for small-molecule target identification (a new paradigm) -- Dr. J. Huang

2008

Demonstrated that multi-hit progression in tumorigenesis is likely to take place at the level of cancer stem cells -- Dr. H. Wu

2009

Development of [F-18] FAC & analogs for imaging dCK enzyme activity -- Drs. C. Radu, N. Satyamurthy, O. Witte, and J. Czernin

2010

Human prostate stem cell and epithelial transformation -- Dr. O. Witte 

Development of Single Cell Barcode Chips for Proteomics -- Dr. J. Heath

A comprehensive map of human genetic interactions -- Dr. D. Smith

Invention of miniaturized PET scanner-PETBox; commercialized by Sofie Biosciences -- Dr. A. Chatziioannou

Cerebral glucose utilization via sodium glucose transporters (SGLTs) -- Drs. J. Barrio and E. Wright 

Initiation of first-in-human clinical trial of retroviral replicating vector-mediated gene therapy -- Dr. N. Kasahara

Rank-rank hypergeometric overlap (RRHO) algorithm for graphical comparison of gene expression signatures -- Dr. T. Graeber

Microfluidic devices for measuring signaling events at the single cell level from patient tumors -- Drs. T. Graeber and H. Tseng

2011

GABA administration prevents rheumatoid arthritis in mice -- Dr. D. Kaufman

Identified cross-talk between PTEN/PI3K with AR and with RAS/MAPK pathways in tumor progression and treatment resistance -- Dr. H. Wu

GABA administration inhibits the development of insulin resistance and glucose tolerance -- Dr. D. Kaufman

Mechanisms of melanoma escape from BRAF inhibition in patients; BRAF as an anti-tumor target in human melanoma. FDA drug approval -- Drs. A. Ribas and R. Lo

Diagnostic applications of Bar Code Chips for melanoma cancer patients -- Dr. J. Heath

Invention of Electronic Microfluidic Chip for synthesis of PET probes -- Drs. M. Van Dam, P. Keng, and C.J. Kim

2012

Glucose deprivation activates a metabolic and signaling amplification loop leading to cell death -- Dr. T. Graeber

Demonstrated that FDG PET/CT imaging can predict long term survival of sarcoma patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy -- Drs. J. Czernin and F. Eilber

Diagnostic applications of Bar Code Chips for immunological mechanism for Inflammatory Bowel Disease -- Dr. J. Heath

Identification of natural products that block alcohol-induced pathologies and dependence -- Dr. R. Olsen