In our lab, we are transforming how brain tumors are visualized and understood- one molecule at a time. Using deuterium metabolic imaging, we have pioneered the use of deuterated glucose and pyruvate to reveal tumor burden and track therapeutic response in both adult and pediatric brain cancers with IDH and oncohistone mutations.
Now, we are taking the next leap by developing deuterated alpha-ketoglutarate as a highly specific tracer for detecting IDH mutations in gliomas. These breakthroughs hold the promise of precision imaging, paving the way for smarter diagnostics, real-time treatment monitoring, and more targeted care for brain tumor patients.
Relevant publications:
- Taglang C, Batsios G, Mukherjee J, Tran M, Gillespie AM, Hong D, Ronen SM, Luchman HA, Pieper RO, Viswanath P. Deuterium magnetic resonance spectroscopy enables non-invasive metabolic imaging of tumor burden and response to therapy in low-grade gliomas. Neuro-Oncology, 2022; 24(7): 1101-1112. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noac022. PMID: 35091751; PMCID: PMC9248401.
- Batsios G, Taglang T, Tran M, Stevers N, Barger C, Gillespie AM, Ronen SM, Costello JF, Viswanath P. Deuterium metabolic imaging reports on TERT expression and early response to therapy in cancer. Clinical Cancer Research, 2022; 28(16):3526-3536. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-21-4418. PMID: 35679032; PMCID: PMC9378519.
- Batsios G, Taglang C, Udutha S, Gillespie AM, Phoenix T, Mueller S, Venneti S, Koschmann C, Viswanath P. Lactylation fuels nucleotide biosynthesis and facilitates deuterium metabolic imaging of tumor proliferation in H3K27M-mutant gliomas. bioRxiv, 2025, doi: 10.1101/2025.01.02.631150. PMID: 39803472