Speaker: Prof. Neil Vasdey, Director & Chief Radiochemist, CAMH, Brain Health Imaging Centre & Endowed, Chaired Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada

Time: 15:00-16:30 p.m., July 25, 2024, GMT+8

Venue: Rm 101, Xiaolun Hall, CCME, PKU

Abstract: 

This presentation will focus on some non-traditional approaches to synthesize radiolabeled compounds for new targets to image the brain, and aims to show the intricacies of developing PET radiopharmaceuticals from "bench to bedside".  Specifically, cutting-edge approaches and technologies for imaging receptors and signal transduction pathways with PET, as well as our recent work to expand beyond the “amyloid cascade hypothesis” of Alzheimer’s disease, including tauopathies and neuroinflammatory as well as other intracellular targets. The development from medicinal chemistry all the way to a recent first-in-human PET study for imaging people with non-Alzheimer’s disease tauopathies will be presented. Several of the neuroimaging agents have also been applied as oncology probes and our academic-pharma partnerships.  The intricacies of transitioning labeled compounds to PET radiopharmaceuticals and our aspiration to work towards the ultimate, albeit impossible, goal in the field: to radiolabel virtually any compound for PET will be raised as points for discussion. 

Source: College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, PKU