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
1977
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
1980
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
1982
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
1984
Invention of PC controlled automated radiosynthesizer for PET probes
-Drs. J. Barrio and N. Satyamurthy
1984
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
1986
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
1989
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
1990
Brain amyloid and tau neuroaggregate PET imaging in living subjects
-Drs. J. Barrio and N. Satyamurthy
1990
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
1993
Identification of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) as a major target of autoimmunity in mouse type 1 diabetes
-Dr. D. Kaufman
1993
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
1996
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
1997
Prostate Stem Cell Antigen as a target for prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy
-Dr. O. Witte
1997
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
1998
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
1999
Identification of GABA receptors on immune cells
-Dr. D. Kaufman
1999
Elected to the National Academy of Sciences; Enrico Fermi Presidential Award from President Clinton
-Dr. M. Phelps
1999
Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
-Dr. L. Ignarro
1999
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
2001
The first microarray study of neural stem cells
-Drs. H. Kornblum and D. Geschwind
2001
Algorithm for detecting autocrine feedback signaling in cancers from gene expression profiles
-Dr. T. Graeber
2001
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
2002
Genome-wide voxelation expression maps of the brain
-Dr. D. Smith
2002
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
2006
PINK1 and PARKIN, two genes mediating Parkinson’s disease, function in a common genetic pathway to regulate mitochondrial integrity
-Dr. M. Guo
2006
Specific SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase inhibitor (the first for a field of ~2 decades)
-Dr. J. Huang
2006
Identification of binding sites for general anesthetics on the GABAA receptor
-Dr. R. Olsen
2006
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
2007
F-18 labeled engineered antibody fragments for rapid PET imaging
-Dr. A. Wu
2007
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
2010
Development of Single Cell Barcode Chips for Proteomics
-Dr. J. Heath
2010
A comprehensive map of human genetic interactions
-Dr. D. Smith
2010
Invention of miniaturized PET scanner-PETBox; commercialized by Sofie Biosciences
-Dr. A. Chatziioannou
2010
Cerebral glucose utilization via sodium glucose transporters (SGLTs)
-Drs. J. Barrio and E. Wright
2010
Initiation of first-in-human clinical trial of retroviral replicating vector-mediated gene therapy
-Dr. N. Kasahara
2010
Rank-rank hypergeometric overlap (RRHO) algorithm for graphical comparison of gene expression signatures
-Dr. T. Graeber
2010
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
2011
Identified cross-talk between PTEN/PI3K with AR and with RAS/MAPK pathways in tumor progression and treatment resistance
-Dr. H. Wu
2011
GABA administration inhibits the development of insulin resistance and glucose tolerance
-Dr. D. Kaufman
2011/2012
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
2011
Diagnostic applications of Bar Code Chips for melanoma cancer patients
-Dr. J. Heath
2011
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
2012
Demonstrated that FDG PET/CT imaging can predict long term survival of sarcoma patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy
-Drs. J. Czernin and F. Eilber
2012
Diagnostic applications of Bar Code Chips for immunological mechanism for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
-Dr. J. Heath
2012
Identification of natural products that block alcohol-induced pathologies and dependence
-Dr. R. Olsen