Researcher develops drug to non-invasively diagnose infectious diseases

A professor at The University of New Mexico has developed a new, groundbreaking drug that could revolutionize the diagnosis of infectious diseases. Dr. Jeffrey P. Norenberg, a professor and director of the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Program at UNM’s College of Pharmacy, has invented a non-invasive way to detect infectious diseases. “This drug may aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of many diseases in which inflammation plays an important role, such as heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, lymphoma and leukemia and appendicitis,” said Norenberg. “That is what we can measure with these tools.” The method of non-invasive molecular imaging involves injecting a patient with a drug which binds to receptors only found on the surface of patients’ white blood cells. A radioisotope is used with the drug to allow nuclear medicine imaging so that doctors are able to diagnose the infection, view its extent, or monitor treatment of the infection within the patient. “We can see...