A nuclear imaging chain (100) includes a molecular agent (102), an acquisition system (104), a reconstruction system (106), a detection system (108), and a display system (110). The various components of the imaging chain are optimized according to desired optimization criteria. The optimized characteristics of the imaging chain (100) may include one or more an agent characteristic, an acquisition characteristic (127), a reconstruction characteristic (143), a detection characteristic (159), and a display characteristic.
