Research Interests:
Our research is highly interdisciplinary. Projects lie at the interface of chemistry, biochemistry and translational molecular medicine. Our primary aims are to explore interesting new ways of attaching radionuclides to different chemical structures, and simultaneously to develop new imaging agents that can measure biomarker expression for monitoring therapy in cancers and other human diseases.
Chemical goals focus on identifying new ways of attaching radionuclides to different drug molecules, peptides, proteins, antibodies and nanoparticles. We are particularly interested in finding new chemical methods that allow easy and rapid incorporation of radionuclides including 18F, 64Cu, 68Ga, 90Y, 89Zr, 111In, and 177Lu etc onto various chemical platforms that allow targeted delivery to different cancers.
Our research involves organic and inorganic synthesis, computational studies of reaction mechanisms and metal ion bonding using density functional theory, synthesis and characterisation of radioactive molecules, and complete radiotracer development from cellular assays in vitro to full imaging, biodistribution and pharmacokinetic profiling studies in vivo.