Healio: Q&A: New imaging method enables quick lung infection identification

Federally funded research led by Nalinikanth Kotagiri highlighted in medical news publication

Nalinikanth Kotagiri, PhD, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, is hoping to speed up the diagnosis of lung infections by creating a new imaging method that identifies these infections in real time.

Nalinikanth Kotagiri in lab.  Story on DoD Breast Cancer Breakthrough Award Level 1

Nalinikanth Kotagiri aims to develop innovative and advanced solutions to treat human disease through a highly multidisciplinary approach. Photo/UC Marketing + Brand

With the current chest imaging technology, patients with suspected lung infections are unable to receive a specific diagnosis unless they undergo an invasive procedure and wait 2 to 3 days for their results.

In a Q & A with Healio news, Kotagiri explains the research, which is funded by the grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

The collaborators on this project include experts in COPD and lung diseases: Francis McCormack, MD, a pulmonologist, and Michael Borchers, PhD, at the University of Cincinnati.  Changchun Xie, PhD, at the University of Cincinnati is the team’s biostatistician, and Suzanne Lapi, PhD, at the University of Alabama-Birmingham will provide the radiochemistry expertise to optimize contrast agent development.

Read the Healio Q & A 

Read more about Kotagiri and his research in a UC web story.

Featured image at top of Kotagiri by Andrew Higley/UC  Marketing + Brand.

Impact Lives Here

The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here

Related Stories

2

National rankings highlight UC’s co-op program, innovation

September 12, 2022

The University of Cincinnati’s co-op program stands at No. 4 in the U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings, continuing its historical placement among the top five co-op programs in the country — and No. 1 for co-op among public universities. The latest 2023 issue of the magazine’s influential “Best Colleges” guide ranks UC in the top tier, including among the “most innovative among national universities,” (No. 68) — UC’s first-ever ranking in that category.

3

Healio: Q&A: New imaging method enables quick lung infection identification

November 6, 2023

Nalinikanth Kotagiri, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the UC James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, has been awarded a five-year $3 million, R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to develop and study the effectiveness of different kinds of injectable probes (metallic contrast agents) that would collect at the site of the infection and immediately light up under a nuclear imaging machine, known as a PET scan.