Hooker

Jacob Hooker

Associate Professor of Radiology

Basic reaction methodology development for short-lived isotopes and the application of these new methods to the construction of novel PET imaging agents to probe humann brain function.

Builing 149, Room 2301
13th Street
Charlestown, MA  02129
Tel: 617-726-6596
Email: hooker@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu

Website:
http://hookerlab.martinos.org

Summary
Research in the Hooker Lab is diverse ranging from palladium to the pallidum.  In short, we develop and use chemical biology tools to understand physiology in vivo. Our biggest focus area is in neurochemistry and we often use positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as tools for measure neurochemical dynamics in the human brain.  Of course studies of the human brain of this type require a translational program that encompasses chemistry (e.g. synthesis methodology), biology (e.g. recombinant proteins, cell culture models, ex vivo tissue analysis), animal models (e.g. rodent and non-human primates) and expertise in other disciplines (e.g. neuroscience and medical physics).  The Hooker Lab is unique in both its make-up and capabilities. 

Active projects in the Hooker lab develop tools for and/or study the chemical and molecular basis for autism, mental illness, and chronic pain. A major focus area is the characterizing normal brain neurochemical function and epigenetic changes that can occur over one's life.

Publications

Wey HY, Wang C, Schroeder FA, Logan J, Price J, Hooker JM. Kinetic Analysis and Quantification of [11C]Martinostat for in vivo HDAC Imaging of the Brain. ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 2015.

Loggia ML, Chonde DB, Akeju O, Arabaz G, Catana C, Edwards RR, Hill E, Hsu S, Izquierdo-Garcia D, Ji R, Riley M, Wasan AD, Zurcher NR, Albrecht DS, Vangel MG, Rosen BR, Napadow V, Hooker JM.  Evidence of brain glial activation in chronic pain patients.  Brain. 2015

Villien M, Wey HY, Mandeville JB, Catana C, Polimeni JR, Sander CY, Zürcher NR, Chonde DB, Fowler JS, Rosen BR, Hooker JM. Dynamic Functional Imaging of Brain Glucose Utilization using fPET-FDG. NeuroImage. 2014.

Diyabalanage HVK, Van de Bittner GC, Ricq EL, Hooker JM. A chemical strategy for the cell-based detection of HDAC activity. ACS Chemical Biology. 2014