SBMS Trainee: Zhuo (Dean) Zhang
Graduate Advisor: Peter Tonge
Clinical Advisor: Dinko Franceschi
Graduate Program: Chemistry
Email: zhuo.zhang@stonybrook.edu
My graduate study began in Dr. Peter Tonge's group in Department of. My research focuses on the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of bacterial infections in human drug PET assisted drug development for infectious diseases. Specifically I am working on establishing a multimodal imaging strategy using PET/MRI to diagnose foot infections especially osteomyelitis in diabetic patients. Another major component of my research is to design and radio-synthesize novel small-molecule PET tracers for bacterial infection diagnosis. I am also working on using PET imaging coupled with PK/PD modeling to quantitatively predict drug efficacy based on easily measurable pharmacokinetic parameters. I joined the SBMS program to learn about the clinical application of PET imaging and try to learn how to translate novel PET tracers from benchside to bedside with the help of my advisor, Dr. Tonge, an expert in anti-bacterial drug development, and my clinical advisor, Dr. Franceschi, an expert in PET imaging.
