Date/Time
Date(s) - 12/01/2022
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Dr. Caterina Ramogida –  https://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/department/faculty-staff/profiles/research-faculty/cfr.html

Date: January 12, 2022

Time: 3:30 PM

Title: Exploiting the Nuclear Chocolate Box: Radiometals for Imaging and Therapy of Disease

Nuclear medicine is a powerful technique with the ability to image disease non-invasively and subsequently treat the diseased state without harming surrounding healthy tissue. This is accomplished by injecting a radioactive isotope fused to a tumour-targeting biomolecule (aka targeting vector) that can transport the radionuclide specifically to the diseased tissue. When harnessed properly, the radiative emissions of radioisotopes can be utilised for diagnostic imaging (via gamma [?] or positron [?+] emission for single photon emission computed tomography [SPECT] or positron-emission tomography [PET], respectively) or therapy (via alpha (?), beta (?-), or Meitner-Auger electron emission). Metallic elements comprise about 80% of the Periodic Table, offering a ‘nuclear chocolate box’ of radioisotopes with an array of possible emissions, energies, and half-lives for either imaging, therapy, or both (i.e., radiotheranostics).

In this talk, an introduction to the field of nuclear medicine will be given with an emphasis on how to use radiometals for molecular imaging and targeted radionuclide therapy of disease. Our recent work to develop radiopharmaceuticals with exotic radiometal ions such as actinium-225 (225Ac), lead-212/203 (212/203Pb), and mercury-197m/g (197m/gHg) will also be discussed.

Institution: Simon Fraser University

Location: Zoom

Host: Drs. Soo Hyun Byun & Paul Higgs