Current activities in my group comprise research on liposomes for drug delivery, emulsions and nanoparticles as MRI or CT contrast agents as well as radiolabled ligands for nuclear imaging (SPECT, PET). My ambition is to design of new multi-potent nanoconstructs that could be used to improve early diagnosis of a disease or therapy by enabling for example drug delivery under image guidance. Bringing these concepts from preclinical research into the clinic is very challenging, as biodistribution, toxicity issues, and long-term effects in humans need to be considered. However, many approaches of agent design rely so far simply on empirical rules. One bottleneck is the fundamental understanding of how material properties affect the behavior and interactions of the nanomaterials in-vivo. Preclinical imaging therefore plays a crucial role in my research to study and visualize the biodistribution of agents. For example, labeling of agents with radioactive isotopes allows to visualize and quantify organ uptake using preclinical SPECT or PET imaging.