12. PET – the detection of brain chemical activity

Today's Neuroscience, Tomorrow's History - Professor Terry Jones - Audio

Professor Terry Jones studied physics and health physics at Birmingham University, graduating with a Masters degree in 1964. In the same year he joined the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cyclotron Unit at Hammersmith Hospital, London, the first hospital-based cyclotron in the world. His career has been in neuro-imaging research, and he produced among the first gamma camera of the brain’s metabolism and blood flow. In 1972 he visited the US where the first Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners were being developed by Michel Ter-Pogossian. Professor Jones developed a technique of breathing oxygen-15 (radioactive oxygen), which emits positrons, to image the brain’s regional metabolism – a technique which he tried on himself to create the first image. He was responsible for installing one of Britain’s first PET scanners – at the Hammersmith Hospital in 1979, where he recruited Richard Frackowiak, among others, to conduct research. His research interests have included looking at the pharmacokinetics of experimental drugs such as temazolomide, developed for brain tumours (gliomas), and imaging serotonergic receptors (the 5HT1A system) in the brain.