Ultimately, utilizing these new imaging tools, we envision a number of future experiments to delineate potential differences in the course of H1N1pdm and H5N1 infection in ferrets. We also plan to explore additional radiotracers that might reveal potential differences in host responses in the immune system and the process of acute injury in the lung. Future studies will assess differences in presentation of those who recover from infection versus those who eventually succumb to infection such as with more lethal isolates such as H5N1. This model should be valuable in rapid assessment of the effect of various treatments on pulmonary inflammation and damage. Finally, these first PET/CT imaging approaches could be extended to a number of other important pulmonary infections caused by pathogens such as hantaviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, and SARS CoV, to gain further insight into the spatiotemporal in vivo dynamics of disease progression [18] .