India, June 13 -- Tumour cells have higher metabolic activity compared to healthy tissue and consequently consume a lot of glucose. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) - the current gold standard diagnostic technique - exploits this property. Clinicians inject patients with radioactive tracers like18F-fluoro 2-deoxy glucose (18F-FDG) which accumulate at the tumour site and help pinpoint it. However, PET is expensive, and poses the risk of radiation accumulation in case of repeated scans.

Researchers from the Department of Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru have now developed a biocompatible small molecule that can be used as a minimally invasive contrast agent for Photoacoustic (PA) Tomography. In this method, a...