Radiopharmaceuticals are drugs that are labeled with a radioisotope and used in the field of nuclear medicine as tracers in the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases. Over the past decades, cutting-edge nuclear imaging techniques such as position emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission tomography (SPECT) have been developed and integrated into routine clinical practice. These advanced techniques are used in combination of trace amount of radiopharmaceuticals to image or visualize the body functions and physiologic processes at the molecular level.

Unlike conventional studies in the field of radiology, nuclear imaging studies such as PET and SPECT generally depend on administration of a radiotracer or radiopharmaceutical that is specific for the targets to be imaged. As a result, a variety of radiopharmaceuticals have been developed. Among the radiopharmaceuticals that are widely used, only a few are made commercially available for PET imaging studies. Most of the radiopharmaceuticals, however, need to be custom-synthesized using an on site cyclotron. In fact, due to the short half-life of some radionuclides such as C-11 (t1/2 20 min), many radiolabelled radiopharmaceuticals must be synthesized immediately before imaging studies.

For this reason, a state-of-the-art PET radiopharmaceutical core facility was established in 2006 to provide radiotracers to the research community for nuclear imaging research at Case and affiliated institutions. The facility is designed to provide critical support to biomedical research communities in response to the molecular imaging needs in their ongoing projects and also to provide guidance on forward-looking and cutting edge research programs.