Human Health
One-Step 18F-Labeling – Development of Clinically Useful PET Imaging Agents
SOF140- Project Leaders: David Perrin
- Institutions: University of British Columbia (UBC)
- Budget: $230000
- Program/Competition: Strategic Opportunities Fund
- Genome Centre(s): Genome British Columbia
- Fiscal Year: 2013
- Status: Closed
Positron-emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine functional imaging technique used to observe metabolic processes in the body as an aid to the diagnosis of disease. A PET scan uses a small amount of a radioactive drug, or tracer, to show differences between healthy tissue and diseased tissue. A substantial roadblock for translation of new PET tracers into clinical studies is the ability to create any 18F-radiotracer in water, in high yield and high specific activity.
This project merged chemistry and molecular medicine to fill a major gap in nuclear medicine, developing a breakthrough in radiolabeling that can be applied to both small molecules and large peptidic tracers. This is expected to advance preclinical research and to improve cancer diagnosis/prognosis, enhancing BC’s potential to be a hub of integrated cancer research and treatment.
