? The P.I. has had a long-term relationship with Alliance Pharmaceutical scientists in San Diego. We have collaborated on many discoveries made by the P.I. or Alliance that were translated from concept to the clinic. Two of these are now commercial products. All of these agents were perfluorocarbon-based that constitute the core technology of Alliance and the expertise of my laboratory. Alliance is now focused on the oxygen transport indications and divested its ultrasound contrast agent (USCA) (Imagent) in June 2003 to Photogen Technologies, Inc. who in turn created a new division, IMCOR Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in San Diego and employs about 30 people all of whom were scientists or support staff at Alliance assigned to the contrast media effort. IMCOR is dedicated to the clinical and commercial development of specialty imaging agents, and is currently focused on contrast agents for ultrasound and x-ray CT in cardiology and oncology. Capitalizing on the expertise of IMCOR scientists and the interest of IMCOR to commercialize contrast agents, and our expertise in contrast research should lead to synergistic discoveries and clinical translation. ? ? The long-term objective of the project proposed here is to commercialize an USCA for indirect lymphography to detect the sentinel lymph node (SLN) for resection. If the project is successful we should be able to trace the lymph duct from the tumor to every SLN draining the site regardless of location and needle-localize the node pre-operatively. The benefits will be to minimize tissue dissection by guiding the surgeon directly to the SLN. If the node is accessible, resection could potentially be done under local anesthesia or by use of a percutaneous resection device. This would allow the pathologist to study the node rigorously with all appropriate stains rather than the current hurried assessment that is done while the patient is anesthetized. ? ? We plan to manipulate microbubble size, aggregation potential, surface charge and shell properties to produce an agent that is optimized for efficient entry into the lymph duct, visualization of maximal length of the duct, filling draining node and enhancing them intensely and be able to do so repeatedly by re-massaging the depot from the same injection. Further, we will optimize the agent to be resistant to ultrasound pressure and be trapped at least in part by the draining node. We have optimized a reproducible animal model that would allow us to study these characteristics and compare one agent to the other as we optimize the formulation. ? ?
