# Disentangling specific and off-target signals in tau PET imaging

> **NIH NIH R21** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2022 · $119,655

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of tau aggregates plays an increasingly important role in the
diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other tauopathies, and has provided new insights into the
pathophysiology of these diseases. Promising tau radiotracers have been developed, however they all suffer
from important limitations due to off-target binding either in brain regions directly implicated in the disease
process or in adjacent regions. We propose to develop a new approach based on factor analysis of dynamic
sequences to remove the contribution of this contaminating signal to the PET measurements. We expect our
approach to improve our ability to quantify small signal changes in tau aggregates in key brain regions, which in
turn should improve our ability to diagnose AD in early stages, to detect changes in longitudinal studies and to
monitor responses to future therapeutics. We will characterize the performance of the proposed method in
computer simulations and will evaluate the technique in experimental measurements acquired in healthy
controls, subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10461941
- **Project number:** 5R21AG070714-02
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Nicolas Jean Guehl
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $119,655
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10461941

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10461941, Disentangling specific and off-target signals in tau PET imaging (5R21AG070714-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10461941. Licensed CC0.

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