Andrew Horti

Russell Morgan was an innovator. In his early career, he developed an X-ray photo timer that limits exposure and helps maintain consistent image quality, revolutionizing the field. Today, that legacyof innovation carries on in Andrew Horti, the second recipient of the Russell H. Morgan Professorship.

Russell Morgan came to Johns Hopkins in 1946 as a professor and head of the new Department of Radiology. He chaired the department for 25 years and led the Division of Radiation Health Sciences in the school of public health. He later served as dean of the school of medicine and vice president of medicine at Johns Hopkins. He spent his career at Johns Hopkins, seeing the Department of Radiology named in his honor before his passing in 1986.

Like Morgan, Horti is an inventor. Born in the former Soviet Union, Horti earned his doctorate in physical and organic chemistry of high energy compounds at the Leningrad Institute of Technology. He developed anticancer drugs before focusing on PET radiochemistry. He moved to the U.S. in 1991 to work as a fellow at Johns Hopkins. He served at Yale and in the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse PET chemistry lab before returning to Johns Hopkins in 2004.

Today, Horti is a researcher in medicinal PET radiochemistry. He develops radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging in human subjects, focusing on brain receptors and enzymes. Horti’s team has developed the first specific human PET radiotracers for several major brain receptors, including nicotinic and cannabinoid receptors. Once a tracer is developed, it can be used to study different disease processes and develop treatments. Horti’s work has applications in diseases such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, addiction, mood disorders and disorders with a neuroinflammatory component.

Horti has expressed his pride at the opportunity to continue Morgan’s legacy through the Russell H. Morgan Professorship.

“Our development of new PET radiopharmaceuticals,” he noted, “is a continuation of Dr. Morgan’s work in developing new imaging techniques.”