Lalit and Kavita Bahl
A Stony Brook couple, Kavita and Lalit Bahl, have pledged $3.5 million to establish the Kavita and Lalit Bahl Molecular Imaging Laboratory at the Stony Brook School of Medicine.
Mr. and Mrs. Bahl were at first prepared to offer a gift “wherever it is needed most,” but upon hearing of Stony Brook’s national leadership in biomedical imaging and the potential to more accurately diagnose patients with cancer and other diseases, they decided to support a molecular imaging laboratory and the purchase of a cyclotron, which will be located in Stony Brook’s new Medical and Research Translation (MART) Building.
The cyclotron together with the recently acquired simultaneous PET/MRI scanner—the first on Long Island—means Stony Brook will be able to make a significant impact on neurological disorders, cancer, and a number of other diseases.
“We are overwhelmed by the generosity of Kavita and Lalit Bahl,” said Stony Brook President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD. “By supporting our growing imaging and bioinformatics programs, this gift will not only advance Stony Brook Medicine’s strength in these areas, it also will provide hope for patients by helping us better understand their diseases and turn our discoveries into FDA-approved diagnostic and treatment options.”
The PET/MRI scanner allows the two different, yet complimentary, imaging modalities to be performed simultaneously. A cyclotron accelerates atoms close to the speed of light. The atoms are then used to bombard atomic targets to generate unstable isotopes that emit radioactivity. Certain isotopes of carbon and other atoms can be attached by chemists to biologically active molecules, creating “tracer molecules.” When injected into the patient or experimental subject, these tracers then bind to specific human cells and cell structures, and can be followed through the human body using the PET scanner; and thanks to the exquisite resolution of the MRI scanner, for a more accurate assessment of the disease.
Explaining that the half-life of the tracer molecules created using the cyclotron can be as short as 20 minutes, Kenneth Kaushansky MD, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, and Dean of the Stony Brook School of Medicine said the Bahl lab will be in very close proximity to the PET/MRI in the Lisa and Robert Lourie Imaging Suite. “We can’t simply place an order for these labeled tracer molecules, because they don’t last. Once the tracers are prepared in the Bahl Laboratory, we will literally run them to the patient.”
“Stony Brook University has been a notable leader in both discovering and using breakthrough imaging technology for research and clinical purposes,” said Lalit Bahl. “Kavita and I are certain that the cyclotron and molecular imaging offer the promise of important discoveries related to cancer and other diseases.”
Dexter Bailey, executive director of the Stony Brook Foundation, added, “Philanthropists invest in success. The Bahl Laboratory supports the kind of translational and clinical research that will serve as the catalyst for growth and lead to discoveries that change lives.”