DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): Stanford University has a rapidly expanding program for the molecular imaging of living subjects. Through significant investments by the University in new space, infrastructure, and new faculty recruitments the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) was established. Dr. Sam Gambhir, Professor of Radiology and Bio-X was recruited and appointed by the Dean of the Medical School as Director of the MIPS. He works closely with Dr. Christopher Contag, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Co-Director of the MIPS. Together, Drs. Gambhil (Principal Investigator for this grant application) and Contag (Co-Principal Investigator) form a unique leadership team that spans the breadth of disciplines involved in multimodality molecular imaging. The MIPS is highly supported by the Deans of Medicine, Engineering, and Humanities &Sciences, Chairs of Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Bioengineering and other senior faculty who win also serve on the internal advisory board for this grant application. This application is for a novel application for an in vivo cellular and molecular imaging center at Stanford (ICMIC at Stanford) to continue the momentum to build the MIPS. The goal of the ICMIC at Stanford application is to provide better links between pre-clinical models of-cancer and the clinical management of cancer patients by novel research in multimodality molecular imaging. Four research projects focused on pre-clinical small animal cancer models that utilize multimodality molecular imaging to understand basic cancer biology and optimize novel cancer therapies, and four developmental projects spanning different components of the molecular imaging research chain are the main science driving this grant. Investigators from a variety of disciplines and expertise including Dr. Felsher-Medical Oncology, Dr. Chen-Radiochemistry, Dr. Rao-Chemistry, Dr. Schnitzer-Applied Physics, Dr. Boyer-Radiation Oncology, Dr. Blankenberg-Radiology, Dr. Levin-Medical Physics, Dr. Nolan-Cell &Molecular Biology, Dr. PlevritIs-Mathematical Modeling, and Dr. Napel-lmage Visualization are all committed to advancing the science of molecular imaging and to this research application in particular. Four specialized resources including 1-Chemistry/Radiochemistry, 2- Flow Cytometry, 3- Small Animal Imaging and 4- Quantitation &Visualization will help insure that the ICMIC at Stanford grant functions efficiently. Finally, a structure training program with 2 post-docs funded by the ICMIC at Stanford and 2 additional post-docs funded through matching funds from Stanford will insure the ability to train next-generation interdisciplinary leaders in molecular imaging. Stanford University, with support for this application from the NCI, is poised to be a major contributor to the research and training efforts for the rapidly growing field of molecular imaging.