The two major goals of Dr. Daniel Silverman's research program are to explore in the living human brain the interactions and neurologic bases of memory, mood and pain perception - with respect to both normal and disordered function (as occurs in dementia, depression and chronic pain syndromes) and to develop noninvasive methodologies with which to optimize management of breast and colorectal cancers.

These apparently disparate objectives are united through use of low-level radioactive biochemicals to characterize and map in the human body the distribution of processes having pressing relevance to patients seen in nuclear and internal medicine. Both lines of research involve extensive application of positron emission tomography (PET). With a focus ranging from molecular processes to human behaviors, research activities correspondingly span the "bench to bedside" spectrum from biochemical work in vitro to monitoring and impacting upon progress of patients in the Ahmanson Biological Imaging Clinic.