During his doctoral and post-doctoral research, he developed several innovative instruments and algorithms for in vivo cancer imaging. Now, as head of the Physical Oncology Laboratory, he investigates how novel physical approaches can solve longstanding problems in oncology. For instance, his lab uses single-cell radionuclide imaging to measure the uptake of clinical PET tracers in heterogeneous cell populations and, in this way, derive a new interpretation of PET scans that accounts for factors such as cell diversity (cancer cells, immune cells and stromal cells), tumor heterogeneity and cell metabolism. Other areas of investigation include in vivo cell tracking and radiation therapy. Dr. Prof. Pratx was named a Damon Runyon Innovator and a Society of Nuclear Medicine Young Investigator. He has published over 50 papers and been principal investigator on several NIH grants.