Research

The Suh laboratory is interested in applying novel molecular imaging tools to elucidate and visualize metabolic changes associated with diseases. The Suh laboratory research focuses on two main biomedical imaging technique for in vivo metabolism studies: 1) lanthanide-based responsive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) agents to detect Zn2+ secretion from the pancreas for in vivo β -cell function imaging, and enantiomeric detection of lactate in neurodegenerative disease. 2) to develop chemical probes labeled with 13C and 15N stable isotopes that could image metabolic processes in vivo in real-time using dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) techniques. DNP hyperpolarization coupled with MR imaging is a rapidly growing metabolic imaging methodology that significantly increases the sensitivity of MR compared to conventional MRI, enabling biological studies that are typically challenging. DNP improves the NMR sensitivity of the 13C nucleus by more than 10,000-fold, allowing for the real-time imaging of enzyme-catalyzed reactions in a single or multiple pathways in vivo. The current focus of the Suh laboratory research is the development of chemical probes to sense the tissue pH and bio-metal, as well as to understand real-time metabolic flux in various areas such as cancer, host-gut microbiota metabolic interactions, and glia-neuron energy metabolism. Furthermore, to measure flux through complex metabolic pathways, the Suh laboratory will be integrating mass spectrometry (MS) technology into the NMR-based 13C isotopomer methods.