Controversies in Radiopharmaceutical Science
Robin Hood and the Merry Pre-Targeteers — on the utility and promise of (or lack of) pretargeting methods
Dr. Brian Zeglis
Hunter College, United States of America
Brian Zeglis is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Hunter College of the City University of New York as well as an Assistant Attending Radiochemist in the Department of Radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His laboratory is dedicated to the development of novel radiopharmaceuticals for the imaging and therapy of disease, with a particular emphasis on work at the intersection of bioorthogonal chemistry and radiopharmaceutical chemistry. When not writing grants and papers, Brian can be found at his cabin in the mountains with his wife, sons, and goldendoodle.
Dr. Giancarlo Pascali
University of New South Wales, Prince of Wales Hospital, Australia
Dr. Giancarlo Pascali graduated from the University of Pisa (Italy) in 2001 with a thesis on 18F, and has since then performed research activities in the PET radiochemistry field. After obtaining his PhD under the supervision of P.A. Salvadori (IFC-CNR, Italy) and W.C. Eckelman (NIH, USA), he has worked both in research and commercial realities, in different European countries, still focusing on the development of novel PET radiopharmaceuticals. He joined ANSTO as Radiochemistry Team Leader in 2013 and currently has also appointments in Prince of Wales Hospital and in University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). He is also an active member and Board component of several professional associations in the field of Chemistry, Radiopharmaceuticals, and Molecular Imaging.
Giancarlo's expertise spans from radiolabelling methods, radiopharmaceutical design and optimization, imaging techniques, production regulations (GMP), and automation approaches. In this last field, he represents one of the early users of microfluidic systems to radiochemical processes and still investigates in this direction.
His current interests are directed towards improving the access of better radioactive diagnostics and therapeutics to a wider population, by studying new molecules, inventing new methods, and devising new instruments.
"Me too tracers” vs "only me tracers" — on when we stop optimizing a tracer/target vs when we look for new targets/tracers
Dr. Michelle James
Stanford (MIPS), United States of America
Dr. James is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Neurology, within the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS). She received her BS in pharmacology and organic chemistry at the University of Sydney, where she also earned her Ph.D. in radiochemistry/pharmacology and was awarded the University Medal. For over fifteen years, Dr. James’s research has focused on designing, evaluating, and translating novel molecular imaging agents to improve the way we diagnose, treat, and understand devastating neurological diseases. In particular, she is interested in developing new positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers for visualizing neuroinflammation with the goal of learning about the in vivo role, spatiotemporal dynamics, and different functional phenotypes of specific innate and adaptive immune cells throughout the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. Dr. James is also very interested in applying these tools to guide therapeutic selection for individual patients and as imaging biomarkers in clinical trials. As part of her work, Dr. James has multiple patented radiotracers, four of which are currently being used in clinical neuroimaging studies at Stanford and/or around the world. She also co-founded a company called Willow Neuroscience which is focused on developing immunomodulatory therapeutics and novel PET diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Melpomeni Fani
University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
Melpomeni Fani is a Professor of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry and the head of the division of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry at the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. She is working on targeted radiopharmaceuticals for oncological diseases in preclinical and clinical settings. In recent years, she has focused on the use of peptides in combination with different radioisotopes, to achieve all-in-one diagnosis and therapy, in what is known as theranostics. Her group is involved practically in the entire spectrum from peptide and chelation/bioconjugation chemistry to radiochemistry, in vitro, in vivo, and imaging studies (PET/CT and SPECT/CT), up to the clinical translation. Her achievements are linked with the development and first-in-man use of radiolabelled somatostatin receptor antagonists for imaging and therapy of neuroendocrine tumors, and with the advancements on 68Ga-radiopharmaceuticals, among others. She has authored 50+ scientific papers and 5 invited book chapters. She has given numerous invited lectures at scientific meetings and in advanced courses in the pharmaceutical industry. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, EJNMMI Research, and Frontiers in Medicine and act as a reviewer for many journals and research funding organizations. She is a member of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the European Society of Molecular Imaging (ESMI), and an expert board member on (radio)peptides in various pharmaceutical companies. Prof. Fani is a chemist by training and she holds a Master's degree in Biochemistry (2000) and a Ph.D. in Radiopharmacy (2003) from the University of Athens, Greece.
Organic vs. inorganic radionuclides — Better, faster, stronger?
Dr. Carolyn Anderson
University of Missouri, United States of America
Carolyn Anderson is the Simón-Ellebracht Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Professor of Radiology at the University of Missouri. Her research interests include the development and evaluation of novel radiometal-based radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostic imaging and targeted radiotherapy of cancer and other diseases. She has co-authored over 190 publications, mostly in the area of developing radiopharmaceuticals for oncological imaging and therapy. A current focus of her research lab is the development of imaging agents for up-regulated receptors on immune cells that are involved in inflammation related primary tumor growth and cancer metastasis, and sickle cell disease. Dr. Anderson has received several honors, including the Michael J. Welch Award from the SNMMI in 2012, a Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy of Radiology Research in 2014, Fellow of the SNMMI and fellow of the World Molecular Imaging Society in 2019, and the Paul C. Aebersold Award of the SNMMI in 2020.
Dr. David Perrin
University of British Columbia, Canada
David Perrin studied biochemistry at U.C. Berkeley. He then moved to U.C. Los Angeles where he completed a Ph.D. in the lab of Professor David Sigman on the synthesis of nucleic acid bioconjugates to ortho-phenanthroline. Dr. Perrin then turned down a Fullbright fellowship in favor of an NSF-NATO fellowship to pursue postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Professor Claude Helene (CNRS/INSERM) who held a position in the historic Natural History Museum in Paris (1995-2000) where he worked on the synthesis of modified nucleoside triphosphates for use in the selection of modified DNAzymes. In 2000 he accepted the position of assistant professor at UBC. In 2005 he was promoted to associate professor and since 2009 has held the rank of full professor.
Professor Perrin is an expert in bio-organic chemistry with research interests in synthetic organic chemistry to meet important intellectual and translational challenges at the interface of chemistry and biology. He is known for having pioneered a novel method for aqueous one-step 18F-radiofluorination of large biomolecules for use in PET imaging. This work has led to several granted patents and is expected to generate pre-clinical leads that will enter the first-in-man trial. Finally, Perrin has established a strong record in peptide chemistry, particularly directed to a new methodology for crosslinked peptides. Most notably, this has led to the first total synthesis of the classic toxin, alpha-amanitin. In each of these domains, Perrin has published numerous papers demonstrating his breadth and depth in these research domains.
Perrin’s research has been recognized by several provincial and national awards in Canada. He has held competitively awarded grants from NSERC, the Petroleum Research Fund, and the CIHR