Harnessing radioactive metal ions for imaging and treatment of cancer
Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) is emerging as a promising method to treat advanced and hard-to-treat cancers. This approach relies on a radionuclide attached to a targeting vector that has strong affinity for unique cell biomarkers overexpressed on cancer cells, enabling the direct and selective delivery of a radioactive payload to diseased cells to facilitate diagnosis/staging or therapy, depending on the type of radiation emitted by the nuclide. In order for these drugs to meet their potential, new methods that increase production of the radionuclide as well as new chemical means to attach these nuclides to targeting vectors are desperately needed.
Using TRIUMF's particle accelerators, a myriad of radionuclides with promising decay properties for applications in RPT can be produced. In this talk, an introduction the principles of RPT will be given with an emphasis on how to use radiometals (radioactive metal ions) for molecular imaging and targeted radionuclide therapy of disease. Our recent work to develop radiopharmaceuticals with exotic radiometal ions such as lead-212/203 (212/203Pb) and mercury-197m/g (197m/gHg) will also be discussed.
Bio
Caterina Ramogida is an Associate Professor in the Chemistry department at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada, and holds a joint appointment with the Life Sciences Division at TRIUMF – Canada’s particle accelerator centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Caterina leads an interdisciplinary research program in the area of nuclear medicinal inorganic chemistry, with a particular interest in developing theranostic radiopharmaceuticals with exotic radiometal ions. She currently serves on the Board of the International Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences and co-leads a trans-Canada New Frontiers in Research Fund Transformation program called “Rare Isotopes to Transform Cancer Therapy”.