Michael Carroll
Abstract
PET Radiochemistry for Medical Research
Radiolabelled compounds have found extensive use in drug discovery and development due to their ease of quantification and detection. Our particular interest is in the use of short-lived positron emitting radioisotopes, such as fluorine-18 (t½ ~110 min), which is used extensively in PET imaging. A key advantage of this methodology is that a single radiopharmaceutical allows translation from the lab (autoradiography), through in vivo pre-clinical studies and ultimately patient use (PET-CT/PET-MR). Isotopes covering a range of half-lives and physical chemical properties are also possible and as such radiochemical techniques provide flexible translational diagnostic methods.
The presentation will describe the types of imaging agents (radioligands, radiotracers) and some examples of their use as molecular probes. There are applications for both radiolabelled small molecules (e.g. drugs, biomarkers, metabolites) and biomacromolecules (e.g. peptides, antibodies, oligonucleotides). How to find and/or develop an imaging agent will be highlighted, and recent advances in automated reaction systems, radiochemistry and scanners suggest that there is now the opportunity to pioneer this approach in areas beyond the traditional use of [18F]FDG in clinical oncology.
Biography
Synthetic medicinal chemist, radiochemist, Head of Radiochemistry, PET Tracer Production Unit, Newcastle University.
My research background has centred on the discovery of new technologies in areas such as asymmetric catalysis, organometallic chemistry, total synthesis and radiopharmaceuticals.
Our research group is involved in the development of novel synthetic methodology and its application to the synthesis of biologically active targets, with current areas of investigation being directed towards the design of efficient asymmetric transformations. Fluorinated compounds are of particular interest as they have been shown to possess unique activity in vivo when compared to their non-fluorinated counterparts. A major goal of our research, through the preparation of selectively fluorinated compounds, is to determine why this is so.
