Drugs and probes: the symbiotic relationship between pharmaceutical discovery and imaging science.

Pharmaceutical research and imaging science are becoming increasingly intertwined. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a molecular imaging technique with particularly broad application in drug discovery and development. At the same time, modern techniques of drug discovery are helping accelerate the development of new PET probes. This article describes the relationship between the two fields, with particular consideration of practical and strategic limitations to full utilization of available technology.