Research

My research team works on radiolabelling biomolecules (e.g. peptides, proteins and antibodies) for various reasons including: determination of their in vivo biodistribution, validation of in vivo targets, or as imaging or radiopharmaceutical therapy agents for cancer.  We use positron emitting radionuclides such as ⁶⁸Ga, ⁸⁹Zr or ⁶⁴Cu in order to carry out in vivo PET imaging, ¹¹¹In or ^99mTc for SPECT imaging, or therapy radionuclides such as ¹⁷⁷Lu (beta particle emitter) and alpha particle emitters such as ²²⁵Ac. Unfortunately, despite extremely promising clinical results, there is a global shortage of alpha particle emitting radionuclides which hampers this type of research.  However, as part of the Radionuclides for Health UK project, we aim to be working with ²¹²Pb sourced from the UK National Nuclear Laboratory within the next 2 years.

Advanced cell therapies such as CAR-T cells can be genetically modified to express a transporter that can take up a radioactive probe in vivo. Our cell tracking work uses the sodium iodide transporter, hNIS,  along with ^99mTc injection to track these therapeutic cells as they localise to the tumour. Our research focuses on obtaining quantitative measures of the numbers of cells being detected and acting on the tumour over time.

We also use radioactive probes such as ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FLT to monitor response to various types of cancer treatments in vivo (e.g. chemo or antibody treatments) as well as MRI using a novel computational 3D mouse atlas tool developed in the lab.  Increased accuracy in measuring tumour burden reduces biological variability, allowing a reduction in group size of studies that use orthotopic tumours and those that develop spontaneously over long periods of time.

Other Activities

• Project lead, Radionuclides for Health UK - a Queen Mary University of London/King's College London/UK National Nuclear Laboratory advocacy initiative to engage with government departments, academics, professional organisations, charities and industry to work towards re-establishing the UK supply of radionuclides for molecular radiotherapy. Twitter: @RadionuclidesUK
• Academic lead, Preclinical Imaging Core Facility at BCI

Major Funding

• Jan 2022-June 2022 - Queen Mary University of London Research England Policy Impact Award, Radionuclides for Health UK, Policy Development - Jane Sosabowski,  Jennifer Young, Phil Blower (KCL), £43,526.04
• 2022-2024 - Neuroblastoma UK, Dinutuximab Beta as a theragnostic vector for non-invasive molecular imaging and radiotherapy of high-risk neuroblastoma, Dr Mark Gaze (UCLH), Co-I Dr Jane Sosabowski, Dr Samantha Terry (KCL), £214,384.91
• 2021-2022 - Queen Mary University of London Impact Award Fund/EPSRC, Re-establishing the UK supply of Radionuclides, £49,883
• 2018-2022 - Barts Charity, Development of a Gallium-68 PET Clinical Imaging Service, £549,993
• 2018-2022 - Invicro LLC, Improved characterisation of disease models for validation of quantitative PET and SPECT in vivo imaging, £331,951

Recent Publications

Spatiotemporal tracking of gold nanorods after intranasal administration for brain targeting Han S, Wang JTW, Yavuz E et al. Journal of Controlled Release (2023) 357(7) 606-619

MCTR3 reprograms arthritic monocytes to upregulate Arginase-1 and exert pro-resolving and tissue-protective functions in experimental arthritis Pistorius K, Ly L, Souza PR et al. eBioMedicine (2022) 79(7)

Preclinical PET and SPECT Instrumentation Dexter K, Foster J, Sosabowski J et al. (2022) 1(7) 473-484

Preclinical PET and SPECT imaging Dexter K, Foster J, Petrik M et al. (2022) 1(7) 662-670

New bioconjugated technetium and rhenium folates synthesized by transmetallation reaction with zinc derivatives Borràs J, Foster J, Kashani R et al. Molecules (2021) 26(7)

Bioconjugated technetium carbonyls by transmetalation reaction with zinc derivatives Borràs J, Lecina J, Foster J et al. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters (2021) 37(7)

Simultaneous dual isotope PET-SPECT/CT imaging of pancreatic cancer Dexter K, BROWN N, Foster J et al. (2020) (1)

Cancer associated fibroblast FAK regulates malignant cell metabolism. Demircioglu F, Wang J, Candido J et al. Nature Communications (2020) 11(1) 1290-1290
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32157087

Neutron Activated ¹⁵³Sm Sealed in Carbon Nanocapsules for in Vivo Imaging and Tumor Radiotherapy Wang JTW, Klippstein R, Martincic M et al. ACS Nano (2020) 14(7) 129-141

18F-Trifluoromethanesulfinate Enables Direct C–H 18F-Trifluoromethylation of Native Aromatic Residues in Peptides Kee CW, Tack O, Guibbal F et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2020) 142(1) 1180-1185

Team

Postdoctoral Researchers

• Dr Julie Foster (Preclinical Imaging Core Service Manager)
• Dr Roxana Kashani 
• Dr Jennifer Young
• Dr Juliette Chupin

Research Technician

• Julie Andow

PhD Students

• Eva Bugallo-Blanco
• Farah Alam

Biography

I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from University of Natal, Durban, South Africa and went on carry out an MSc by research into the Photochemistry of Sunscreen Constituents at same university.