PET radiopharmaceuticals — using molecular imaging of the fundamental biology of the disease – is a paradigm shift in diagnostic imaging. New molecular imaging with radiopharmaceuticals are providing a powerful tool for specially characterizing and targeting the biological properties and genetics of several diseases, as well as vastly improving the ability to monitor each patient’s response to treatment, thereby establishing its critical importance in the theranostic (therapeutic and diagnostic) field. As an Assistant Professor and Leader of the Radiopharmaceutical production and Cyclotron operation programs at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Dr. Sai’s research focusses significantly on developing multiple novel PET-based radiopharmaceuticals, both for pre-clinical and clinical evaluations to address critical parameters of disease pathology including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders. He has successfully demonstrated that these radiopharmaceuticals can provide significant information for clinicians which aids in their understanding of the disease and helps them to decide on the best course of treatment for each individual patient, thus contributing towards “personalized medicine”.

Currently several PET-based pharmaceuticals are being used in the development of clinical trials to find therapy for many types of cancer and cardiovascular disease and thus improve the U.S. health sphere. Historically, many experimental treatments failed to reach the clinical stage due to poor standards of tracer quality and production that did not meet FDA standards. In other words, we have lacked the tools to be able to evaluate on the molecular and cellular level how effective these new treatments are on individual patients. Dr. Sai is one of the few research scientists in U.S. with a PhD level nuclear and radiochemistry background who can perform both the crucial parameters of PET based radiopharmaceutical research, i.e., perform preclinical evaluation of novel radiopharmaceuticals, and then translate these into clinical pipeline under GMP guidelines of FDA protocol. Dr. Sai has successfully translated several PET-based radiopharmaceuticals for clinical evaluations.