22 May 18. Dr Adriana Tavares

Dr Adriana Tavares, head of the preclinical PET-CT facility, discusses her research into developing new imaging probes - radiotracers - for PET imaging.

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Transcript - Dr Adriana Tavares, 2018

"Hello, my name is Adriana Tavares, and I am a Research Fellow in PET Imaging and the Head Preclinical PET-CT facility here at the University of Edinburgh.

My research is focused on developing new imaging probes called radio traces for positron emission tomography, or PET. So PET imaging is a highly sophisticated imaging technology that’s focused on investigating different biological processes inside the human body.

In order to do PET imaging we need to develop something called radiotracers. And the radiotracers are basically biologically active molecules tagged with the radioisotope. And the radioisotope allows us to then track these biologically active molecules inside the human bodies. And by doing so, we will be able to look at different diseases, and different treatments for those diseases. So PET imaging allows doctors to diagnose patients, as well as researchers to understand more about the underlying mechanisms of different diseases, as well as different treatments.

Thank you."