Available for licensing and commercial development are patent rights covering PET imaging agents, methods of their synthesis, and their uses in imaging specific fungal infections.  Fungal infections remain a global health problem resulting in over 1.5 million annual deaths.  Immunocompromised patients, especially those undergoing cancer treatments or transplantation, are particularly vulnerable and the fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus, is of particular concern.  To date, no fungal-specific imaging agents are available—existing imaging agents cannot discern fungal pathogens from bacteria or viruses and generally cannot differentiate between infection and inflammation. One naturally-occurring disaccharide, cellobiose, is selectively hydrolyzed by Aspergillus fumigatus and not by bacteria or human cells.  The fluorinated version of the disaccharide, ¹⁸F-Fluorodeoxycellobiose ([18F]-FCB), has been synthesized and tested. [18F]-FCB is particularly useful as it is not metabolized by human enzymes and hydrolyzed only by fungal beta-glucosidases.  Both in vitro and in vivo testing in animal models (see publications below) of different infections and inflammation confirmed radioactivity accumulation only in live pathogenic fungi.  Imaging with [18F]-FCB in mice infected with Aspergillus, for example,  showed that the imaging agent can detect whether there has been a response to antifungal therapy.  One major advantage is that synthesis of [18F]-FCB is simple and efficient using readily commercially available reagents.   The radiolabeled agent can then be administered intravenously, and imaging performed 90-120 minutes after injection.  A radiosynthesis kit has also been developed and can be used at ambient temperature to produce [18F]-FCB from a commercially acquired kit in less than two hours without the need for a cyclotron.