Neuroimaging clinical trials at UCLA

The purpose of this project is to validate a new combined MRI and PET imaging technique as a biomarker or measure of glycolysis in brain tumors. To accomplish this, the investigators propose obtaining image-guided measures of tissue pH and biopsied tissue in tumor areas selected for bulk resection surgery. Investigators will then correlate the imaging measurements with pH, RNA expression, protein expression, and bioenergetics measurements of key glycolytic enzymes.

This clinical trial uses a type of imaging scan called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study brain tumor biology in patients with glioblastoma that can be removed by surgery (resectable). Malignant gliomas are the second leading cause of cancer mortality in people under the age of 35 in the United States. Glioblastoma is a type of malignant glioma with very poor patient prognosis. There are currently only about 3 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of glioblastoma, one of them being administration of bevacizumab, which is very expensive. It is the most widely used treatment for glioblastoma with dramatic results. However, previous clinical trials have not demonstrated an overall survival benefit across all patient populations with glioblastoma that has returned after treatment (recurrent). The study aims to identify which patients who will benefit from bevacizumab therapy by observing MRI images and corresponding imaging biomarkers.

This is a clinical trial study that aims to evaluate the specificity of the relationship between reduced sensitivity to social reward and social anhedonia at both behavioral and neural levels. Individuals who recently experienced their first-episode psychosis will be recruited. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to motivational interviewing or a time- and format-matched control probe. At pre- and post-probe, participants will perform two social reward learning tasks in the scanner. With this design feature, we will examine the relationship between sensitivity to social reward and reduced subjective experience of social pleasure at both the behavioral and neural levels.