Chemistry Weekly Seminar - Dr. Eric Price, University of Saskatchewan
Dr. Eric Price, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at USask, will present a seminar at 1:30 pm via Zoom.
Title
Modular Chemical Tools for the Construction of Next-Generation Molecular Imaging and Radionuclide Therapy Agents
Abstract
The Price lab at the University of Saskatchewan is working to create a small library of versatile chemical tools that can be incorporated into many different types of imaging and radiotherapy agents to improve their properties and efficacy. Many new radiopharmaceuticals are based on proteins, usually in the form of antibodies, peptides, or protein domains, with nanoparticles also gaining traction in recent years.
To create these radiopharmaceutical agents, one must assemble several key components with each serving specific functions, and each presenting an opportunity to make chemical changes and tune their properties through synthetic organic and bioconjugation chemistry. These components include (1) a chelator to quickly bind and stably hold radioactive metal ions to enable PET imaging or radionuclide therapy, (2) a linker to provide physical space and/or other chemical structures between the chelator and the bioconjugation reagent, typically to give the targeting vector (e.g. cancer-targeting antibody or peptide) ample space to engage with its receptor “dock” or to improve water solubility, (3) the bioconjugation reagent/moiety to quickly and selectively provide a strong chemical linkage between the chelator-linker (or dye/drug-linker) and the protein, and (4) the targeting vector such as a peptide or antibody to provide selective receptor-based targeting to many different diseases and biological markers.
Core projects in the Price lab have been designed to solve or improve many of the practical issues and deficiencies of modern radiopharmaceuticals via the first three of these four key components: the chelators, functional linkers, and the bioconjugation reagents. This interdisciplinary and collaborative research has bridged radiochemistry, synthetic organic and inorganic chemistry, computational and spectroscopic sciences, and biological and clinical sciences. These new chemical tools are designed to be modular and to therefore have broad applicability. This presentation will summarize all major projects in the Price lab, with a focus on (1) our work towards new chelators for zirconium-89 and paired theranostic radiometals, and (2) ultrasonic-assisted solid-phase peptide synthesis of chelator-peptide conjugates.
Date: Friday, September 10, 2021
Time: 1:30 pm
Via Zoom video conference (link available by request to chem.dept@usask.ca)