Dr. Mathis has a long standing interest in applying synthetic radiochemistry techniques to develop PET radiopharmaceuticals to study brain function in vivo. Over the past 25 years, he has focused primarily on the development of radiotracers to image the serotonin and dopamine neuroreceptor systems, as well as agents to evaluate other aspects of normal and abnormal function in the central nervous system using PET imaging techniques.
Approximately 10 years ago, Dr. Mathis joined efforts with Dr. William E. Klunk of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh to devise a PET radiotracer capable of imaging amyloid. This work led to the development of a new class of highly successful radiopharmaceutical agents, among which is Pittsburgh Compound-B, to non-invasively assess amyloid load in the living human brain using PET imaging methodology.
As the Director of the University of Pittsburgh PET Facility, Dr. Mathis works closely with more than 25 University of Pittsburgh investigators from 8 departments on more than 70 PET research imaging protocols in animals and human subjects. These projects include neuroscience, diabetes, and oncology research studies using more than 40 different PET radiotracers to image a variety of biological processes in animals and human subjects.