A new diagnostic tool developed at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences may soon make it significantly easier for physicians to detect cardiac amyloidosis, a progressive and frequently underdiagnosed disease caused by abnormal protein deposits in the heart.
The tool is a novel imaging technology, a radioactive molecule that, when injected into a patient and scanned, lights up amyloid deposits in the heart, making a disease that was once nearly invisible on imaging clearly visible for the first time.
Bayer announced on May 7, 2026, that the Phase 3 REVEAL study — a large, multisite clinical trial evaluating the molecule’s performance — confirmed that the investigational PET imaging tracer iodine-124 evuzamitide detected cardiac amyloidosis with strong sensitivity and specificity in patients with suspected disease. The tracer was evaluated across 19 U.S. centers against standard clinical diagnosis methods.
Iodine-124 evuzamitide was developed by Jon Wall, PhD, and colleagues in the Amyloidosis and Cancer Theranostics Program at the UT Health Sciences College of Medicine – Knoxville. Working in partnership with the UT Research Foundation, Dr. Wall, Emily Martin, PhD, Steve Kennel, PhD, Alan Stuckey, and Tina Richey co-founded a UT startup to advance the technology toward clinical application. The company, now Attralus, Inc., shepherded it through clinical development. The compound was subsequently acquired by Bayer AG, which announced topline results of the Phase 3 REVEAL study.
“Our first-in-human study of iodine-124-evuzamitide, performed at UT Medical Center in collaboration with the Cancer Institute and the Department of Nuclear Medicine, brought patients from all over Tennessee and the U.S.,” Dr. Wall said. “We are so grateful for the enthusiastic involvement of the patients and their families, without whom we could not have achieved this milestone and hopefully approval of this imaging agent by the FDA.”
The tracer is designed to visualize amyloid deposits throughout the body with greater precision than existing diagnostic approaches, giving clinicians a direct molecular window into a disease process that was previously difficult to see clearly in living patients.
“Dr. Jon Wall and his team’s groundbreaking research has opened the door to earlier, more precise detection of cardiac amyloidosis, offering new hope to patients and families facing this devastating disease,” said Maha Krishnamurthy, PhD, president of the UT Research Foundation. “The UT Research Foundation is honored to have played a role in helping this breakthrough move from the university into clinical development.”