Event

Title: “Capture, Excite, Release: Harnessing Rare Earths for Diagnostic Imaging and Therapy”

-Abstract: Stable and radioactive rare earths have attractive properties for diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy applications. Our lab applies a cross-disciplinary approach that combines physical inorganic chemistry, coordination chemistry, chemical biology and preclinical imaging in mice to transform aqua-ions of rare earths into tools for non-invasive diagnostic imaging, optical probes for image-guided surgical resection, and targeted radiotherapy of cancers. The first part of this presentation will discuss our efforts in transforming discrete luminescent lanthanide complexes into in vivo compatible, targeted optical probes. The second part will discuss coordination chemistry strategies to selectively capture diagnostic and therapeutic radionuclides for facile transformation into ready-to-inject radiopharmaceuticals.

Research focus

We harness the rich structural diversity of metal complexes paired with their versatile luminescent and radioactive properties for the development and application of new metal-based molecular imaging probes and therapeutics for personalized medicine. We are interested in the following applications: