Funding is requested to cover the travel and lodging expenses of graduate students, fellows and junior faculty members to attend the 2nd International Workshop on Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 Technology and its Applications in Metabolic Imaging. This conference is a three-day workshop that is scheduled for January 28 through 30, 2009 and will be held on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. This workshop is designed to bring together a great variety of knowledge, experience and prospective from a diverse group of investigators which will cover topics ranging from recent advances in hyperpolarized carbon-13 technology, novel imaging molecular and metabolic techniques and clinical applications of new methods. The meeting consists of a series of invited talks from individuals who are considered to be the leaders in their projective fields. Much like what we had in our previous workshop on hyperpolarized carbon-13 and metabolic imaging, the focus will be on quantitative assessment of metabolism, clinical aspects of molecular processes of cancer and other pathophysiologies and application of hyperpolarized carbon-13 for real-time assessment of molecular processes and metabolism, and standardization of new imaging techniques.
Hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI is a novel and evolving molecular and metabolic imaging technology that has great potential in providing real-time information about metabolism of virtually all living organs and in molecular processes of human body. It is a multi- disciplinary field that combines the expertise of radiology, bioengineering, chemistry, physics and medicine. This technology has a great significance from a public health standpoint because of its potential ability to screen for and diagnose devastating diseases such as cancer at its earliest stage, allowing care-givers to intervene and improve patient outcomes.
