Discovery and development of novel radiopharmaceuticals and radiochemical methods for the biomedical technique of Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Summary

With strong alignment to the clinical programmes within the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and other departments in the Clinical School, our programme of research is the discovery and development of novel radiopharmaceuticals and radiochemical methods for the biomedical technique of positron emission tomography (PET) - a non-invasive imaging technique that uses metabolic substrates, drugs and receptor ligands labelled with short-lived positron-emitting radionuclides to generate quantitative three-dimensional functional images. 

We are based at the Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory (MICL), a dedicated preclinical facility consisting of four interlinked laboratories covering the key  components of the research: 

  1. a organic chemistry laboratory for synthesis of chemical entities and precursors
  2. an analytical laboratory for chemical and radiochemical identification (with NMR and LC-MS analysis instrument)
  3. a radiochemistry laboratory with specialised fumehood cabinets for synthesis and purification of radiotracers
  4. a radiopharmacology laboratory for the biological characterisation and validation of imaging probes. 

We are also linked to the Ann McLaren Building on the same biomedical campus which provide access to animal imaging facilities.

Project aims

Our present areas of research interests include: 

  1. imaging aggregated misfolded protein structures linked with neurodegenerative diseases
  2. novel PET radiopharmaceuticals for imaging neuroinflammation
  3. novel PET radiopharmaceuticals for imaging stem cells
  4. PET markers of dysfunctional adrenal glands; iv) new carbon-11 and fluorine-18 radiosynthetic methods
  5. translational research in the characterisation and application of novel radiotracers in models of disease. 

References

  1. Synthesis and Inhibitory Assessment of ACE2 Inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2: An In Silico and In Vitro Study. 
    Zientek SH, Thompson S, Sephton SM, Xiaoyun Wang , Jieyu He , Layla Hosseini-Gerami , Morgan Thomas , Stephen Thompson , Joseph Ford , Sebastiano Ortalli, Zijun Chen , Gianluca Destro, Andreas Bender, Véronique Gouverneur,  Franklin Aigbirhio,  J Org Chem. 2025 Jul 21. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.5c00918
  2. Synthesis and Assessment of Novel Probes. for Imaging Tau Pathology in Transgenic Mouse and Rat Models. 
    McMurray L, Macdonald JA, Ramakrishnan NK, Zhao Y, Williamson DW, Tietz O, Zhou X, Kealey S, Fagan SG, Smolek T, Cubinkova V, Žilka N, Spillantini MG, Tolkovsky AM, Goedert M, Aigbirhio FI. ACS Chem Neurosci. 2021 Jun 2;12(11):1885-1893.
  3. A fluorescent molecular imaging probe with selectivity for soluble tau aggregated protein.
    Zhao Y, Tietz O, Kuan WL, Haji-Dheere AK, Thompson S, Vallin B, Ronchi E, Tóth G, Klenerman D, Aigbirhio FI. Chem Sci. 2020 Apr  21;11(18):4773-4778.
  4. Radiosynthesis of (R,S)-[18F]GE387: A Potential PET Radiotracer for Imaging Translocator Protein 18 kDa (TSPO) with Low Binding Sensitivity to the Human Gene Polymorphism rs6971; 
    Qiao L, Fisher E, McMurray L, Milicevic Sephton S, Hird M, Kuzhuppilly Ramakrishnan N, Williamson DJ, Zhou X, Werry E, Kassiou M, Luthra S, Trigg W, Aigbirhio FI.. ChemMedChem. 2019 May 6;14(9):982-993. 

Contact details

Professor Franklin Aigbirhio - fia20@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Opportunities

This project is open to applicants who want to do a:

  • PhD
  • MPhil

Projects are particularly suited to graduates in chemistry. We also consider graduates with background in biochemistry , pharmacology and biology