Molecular imaging enables the comprehensive characterization of therapeutic intervention and can be used in preclinical studies, pharmacokinetic studies, dose-finding studies, and proof-of-concept studies. The growing use of molecular imaging is also helping to control and monitor dosage for increased safety and effectiveness. Therefore, molecular imaging techniques play a major role in the development of novel therapies since they measure target expressions as well as function, pathway activities, and cell migration in the intact organism. Among clinical molecular imaging modalities, radionuclide imaging technique is the most sensitive and could provide target specific information. The radiotracer could noninvasively assess diseases treatment endpoints which used to rely almost exclusively on biopsies and histopathological assays. The radiotracer could also be used for radionuclide therapy. Thus, the research focus in agent development is to create personalized theranostic (image and treat) concept. A personalized theranostic agent would be more accurate in the selection of patients who may respond to treatment, and assessing the outcome of therapeutic response.

This special issue will highlight new trends in molecular imaging agent development. It will become the scientific tool for moving a concept from bench work to clinical product development. The special issue will be of interest to translational research scientists and support staff, such as clinicians, molecular biologists, imaging scientists, pharmaceutical developers, physicists, fellows, and staffs. Both academic and clinical scientists are invited to submit the manuscripts. Topics to be covered include, but not limited to:

• Image-guided theranostic approach of diseases
• Advances in bioimaging applications in preclinical drug discovery
• PET/CT and SPECT/CT in disease management
• Radiation dosimetric determination for radiotheranostic agents
• Imaging technology in drug development
• Validation of imaging agents on new molecular targets
• Personalized drug development from molecular imaging

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jbb/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: