A novel method to measure airway mucus plugging using CT images from patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

This novel real-time imaging device can provide precise and rapid pathological imaging information of the tumor area by utilizing fluorescent or luminescent markers within the body to ensure complete surgical resection.

This invention can accurately and rapidly map patient bone structure and classify all tissue types such as fatty soft tissue, water soft tissue, lung tissue, bone, and air within a single scan using novel MRI acquisition and reconstruction techniques.

This invention provides a method for characterizing protein-protein interactions using a novel reversible bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay.

This invention identifies a method to accurately measure flow dynamics, such as velocity and volume, from Computed Tomography scans of blood vessels in a patient.

This technology identifies an advanced imaging technique of biomicroscopy using an innovative type of a wide-field multi-focus microscope to enable fast, high-resolution 3D imaging. 

The use of cell transplantation in the brain shows great promise for the treatment of human neurological diseases, such as Parkinson's disease or stroke. Indeed, pre-clinical studies in animal models have shown significantly improved neurological function following cell grafting. However, in human trials the results have been considerably more variable. This has, in part, been attributed to concerns with poor cell distribution within the target area. A further issue that has arisen with the challenge of scaling up from animal models to humans is the increase in the number of transcortical penetrations required to deliver therapeutic agents. For surgical cell transplantation approaches, cell sedimentation and impaired graft viability are also concerns that need to be addressed to optimize the use of this therapeutic avenue.

Current anti-angiogenic therapies for the treatment of cancer are a rapidly growing market led by Genentech’s Avastin® (bevacizumab). Avastin® and other anti-angiogenic therapies work by preventing new blood vessel formation, thus starving tumor cells of glucose and oxygen. However, due to rapid development of resistance, Avastin® has shown only modest increases in overall survival of cancer patients. Therefore, there is a significant need for therapies which can synergize with Avastin® and other anti-angiogenic agents to significantly increase patient survival.

Researchers at UCSF and Stanford have developed an improved method for hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) that increases the observation window while minimally disturbing substrates, allowing for optimal imaging of both substrates and metabolic products. This method can also be tailored to control the parameters required for optimal imaging of individual compounds

Patients suffering from moderate to severe cardiac failure can enjoy substantial improvements in quality of life and survival, when provided with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). However, this treatment has a 30% failure rate due in part to difficulties in characterizing intraventricular synchrony. Improvements in methodology could lead to appropriate patient selection and improved pacemaker positioning, resulting in enhanced therapeutic effectiveness. To redress these problems, UCSF researchers have developed software that permits the visualization and quantification of relevant parameters using a number of different imaging tools. Their novel method employs first harmonic imaging to the blood pool study, yielding a quantitative basis for treatment and evaluation.

Magnetic resonance angiography and arterial spin label perfusion techniques are currently used for imaging the vasculature and hemodynamic state of the brain. These techniques have important applications in the detection and treatment of various diseases such as stroke, tumors, vascular malformations, Alzheimers, and epilepsy. However, current techniques require background suppression methods to increase the contrast-to-noise ratio during imaging. This involves the subtraction of label and control images to remove background noise. As a result, image time is increased, leading to a greater chance of movement from the patient, thus further degrading the images.An imaging sequence developed by a UCSF investigator provides a new spin-lock method of background suppression for time-of-flight imaging. While previous methods have used the spin-lock technique to store angiographic signal, this novel method uses spin-lock to eliminate static tissue signal. Additionally, the use of this method could be extrapolated to other organ systems, such as the heart.

Membrane type serine protease 1 (MT-SP1), or matriptase, is a serine protease that is over-expressed on the surface of epithelial cells involved in a variety of cancers, including breast, colon and prostate. UCSF inventors have developed a novel antibody inhibitor of MT-SP1 (A11) which gains potency and specificity through interactions with the protease surface loops and binds in the active site in a catalytically non-competent manner.  The A11 antibody has applications as a therapeutic, diagnostic, and research tool.