TD1004 - Theragnostics Imaging and Therapy: An Action to Develop Novel Nanosized Systems for Imaging-Guided Drug Delivery

The proposed Action brings together the major European research groups working on the development of novel combined diagnostic/therapeutic agents (theranostic agents). Properly designed agents will allow the in vivo quantitative assessment of the amount of drug reaching a pathological region and the visualisation of molecular changes due to the therapeutic effects of the delivered drug.

The main objective of the Action is to demonstrate the potential of image-guided therapies in the treatment of diseases with high social impact.

Researchers will join efforts to develop novel therapeutic treatments based on the visualisation of drug delivery/release processes and the monitoring of associated therapeutic effects.

The Action goals will be reached thanks to a strong interdisciplinary coordination work mostly focused to get a better understanding of crucial aspects of the whole drug delivery process in vivo, in particular regarding the efficiency of drug targeting and release and the relationship with the therapeutic effect.

The implementation of therapies and surgical interventions with imaging technologies will provide physicians with an extraordinary tool for accelerating the desirable translation towards molecular and personalized medicine, thus considerably extending the armoury of solutions for successfully combating the diseases.