Valentina Garibotto

Function: Professeure associée

Group name: Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Innovative Molecular Tracers (NIMTLab)

Group type: Main

Affiliations: Faculty of Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics

Keywords: biomarkers, molecular neuroimaging, neurodegeneration, neurotransmission

Research activities

Our research group works on molecular neuroimaging, a tool allowing the in vivo measurement of protein deposits, brain metabolism and neurotransmission. Molecular imaging has changed the way we understand brain disorders, especially those associated with neurodegeneration. In this field, the current gold standard is still neuropathology at post-mortem: this represents an intrinsic limitation for the development and assessment of targeted therapies. The availability of in vivo biomarkers of the disease, among these molecular imaging, finally offers an opportunity for precision medicine in degenerative disorders and has already changed how we evaluate patients and how we test new drugs. Our group benefits from a unique and privileged position, on one hand working in close collaboration with various research groups at the Geneva University and abroad and on the other hand being embedded in a clinical division of the Geneva University Hospitals for patient diagnosis and care. This position allows us to translate new ideas and knowledge, coming from basic and applied research programs, into procedures that can be tested in clinical studies and validated for clinical practice.