Recent/Current
Research Funding

National Institue
of Health

Department of Energy

Graduate Group Affiliations

Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests

Molecular Imaging, Technology Development: Dr. Cherry's research involves the rapidly growing field of molecular imaging. The basic concept behind molecular imaging is the use of non-invasive imaging technologies to visualize and characterize specific molecular events and targets in vivo. Areas of active research include the development of new and improved imaging technologies, the design of novel contrast agents and imaging probes and their application in molecular diagnostics and therapeutics. Professor Cherry and the members of his laboratory team are particularly interested in developing new technologies and techniques for in vivo molecular imaging. They focus on a nuclear imaging technique, positron emission tomography (PET), and its application in studying animal models of human disease. They are also exploring the integration of PET imaging technology with the highresolution anatomical imaging provided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or x-ray computed tomography (CT). The use of molecular imaging technologies for phenotyping and for the development and validation of new drugs and therapeutic approaches are among the applications they are pursuing. The research group has many active projects in the laboratory, ranging from the development of new detector technologies for imaging to the building of complete imaging systems for specific biological or medical applications. The research associated with these projects involves novel detector development; system simulation and design; the investigation of data acquisition and correction strategies; the study of three-dimensional image reconstruction algorithms; new software tools for the visualization, analysis, and quantification of imaging data; and the application of molecular imaging technologies to important problems in medicine and biology.

Representative Publications

Yang Y, Tai Y-C, Siegel S, Newport DF, Bai B, Li Q, Leahy RM, Cherry SR.  Optimization and performance evaluation of the microPET II scanner for in vivo small-animal imaging.  Phys Med Biol 2004; 49: 2527-2545.

Abbey CK, Borowsky AD, McGoldrick ET, Gregg JP, Maglione JE, Cardiff RD, Cherry SR.  In vivo PET imaging of progression and transformation in a mouse model of mammary neoplasia. Proc. Natl Acad. U.S.A.  2004; 101: 11438-11443.

Yang YF, Rendig S, Siegel S, Newport DF, Cherry SR. Cardiac PET imaging in mice with simultaneous cardiac and respiratory gating.  Phys Med Biol 2005; 50: 2979-2989.

Chaudhari AJ, Darvas F, Bading JR, Moats RA, Conti PS, Smith DJ, Cherry SR, Leahy RM.  Hyperspectral and multispectral bioluminescence optical tomography for small animal imaging.  Phys Med Biol 2005; 50: 5421-41.

Cherry SR. The 2006 Henry N. Wagner Lecture: Of Mice and Men (and Positrons) – Advances in PET imaging technology.J Nucl Med 2006; 47: 1735-1745.

Stickel JR, Qi J, Cherry SR.  Fabrication and characterization of a 0.5-mm lutetium oxyorthosilicate detector array for high-resolution PET applications.  J Nucl Med 2007; 48: 115-121.

Huang J, Lee CCI, Sutcliffe JL, Cherry SR, Tarantal AF.  Radiolabeling rhesus monkey CD34+ hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells with ⁶⁴Cu-PTSM for microPET imaging. Mol Imag 2008; 7: 1-11.

Catana C, Procissi D, Wu Y, Judenhofer MS, Qi J, Pichler BJ, Jacobs RE, Cherry SR. Simultaneous in vivo positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008; 105: 3705-10.

Judenhofer MS, Wehrl HF, Newport DF, Catana C, Siegel SB, Becker M, Thielscher A, Kneilling M, Lichy MP, Eichner M, Klingel K, Reischl G, Widmaier S, Röcken M, Nutt RE, Machulla H-J, Uludag K, Cherry SR, Claussen CD, Pichler BJ.  Simultaneous PET-MRI: a new approach for functional and morphological imaging. Nat Med 2008; 14: 459-465.

Yang Y, Wu Y, Qi J, James SS, Du H, Dokhale PA, Shah KS, Farrell R, Cherry SR. A prototype PET scanner with DOI-encoding detectors. J Nucl Med 2008; 49: 1132-1140.

Cherry SR.  A high-sensitivity small animal SPECT system.  Phys Med Biol 2009; 54: 1291-1305.

Du H, Yang Y, Glodo J, Wu Y, Shah K, Cherry SR.  Continuous depth-of-interaction encoding using phosphor-coated scintillators. Phys Med Biol 2009; 54: 1757-1771.

Li CQ, Mitchell GS, Dutta J, Ahn S, Leahy RM, Cherry SR. A three-dimensional multispectral fluorescence optical tomography imaging system for small animals based on a conical mirror design.  Optics Express 2009; 17: 7571-7585.

Review Articles

Cherry SR. In vivo genomic and molecular imaging: new challenges for imaging physics. Phys Med Biol 2004; 49: R13-48.

Cherry SR. Multimodality in vivo imaging systems: Twice the power or double the trouble? Ann Rev Biomed Eng 2006; 8: 35-62.

Cherry SR, Louie AY, Jacobs RE. The integration of positron emission tomography with magnetic resonance imaging. Proc. IEEE 2008; 416-438.

Textbook

Cherry SR, Sorenson J, Phelps ME. Physics in Nuclear Medicine. 3rd Edition, W.B. Saunders, New York, 2003.

Recent/Current Teaching

BIM001, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering
BIM243, Radiation Detectors for Biomedical Application
BIM286, Nuclear Imaging in Medicine and Biology

 

Honors and Awards

• Elected Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FlnstP), United Kingdom
• Henry Wagner Lectureship, Society for Nuclear Medicine
• Academy of Molecular Imaging, Distinguished Basic Science Award
• Elected Fellow, Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research Award, College of Enginering, University of California, Davis
• Elected Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)