Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Carbon-11 is a short-lived radioactive isotope with a half-life of 20.3 minutes, and which has important applications for biochemistry research, drug development, and diagnostic medical imaging. Since carbon atoms form the backbone of all organic compounds and nearly all biomolecules, drugs, and imaging agents, carbon-11 is the most versatile isotope for preparing labeled analogues of these for imaging without changing their behaviour in living systems. To synthesize imaging agents with carbon-11, chemical transformations need to be performed in rapid succession with high efficiency under strictly controlled conditions to ensure reproducible results and the safety and utility of products. Our research program develops improved chemical methods with carbon-11 and new imaging agents using this isotope. Specifically, we believe that methods for incorporating high oxidation state carbon-11 labels into molecules from its production form as carbon dioxide and similar derivatives such as carbon monoxide and cyanide will greatly expand the synthetic armament for this isotope and directly lead to novel and improved radiopharmaceuticals available to power molecular imaging.

Our program is specifically targeting synthesis of radiolabeled amides, which are very common chemical bonds found in drugs and proteins. We will develop new methods to prepare these bonds in ways that are specifically useful for radiochemistry, including discovery of amide syntheses using transition metal catalysts and precursors for carbon-carbon-11 bond formation. Such particularly selective methods will enable labeling of more complex molecules as well as combinatorial syntheses. These advances will lead to a more efficient strategy for tracer development, since we can start with simpler chemical inputs to make complex labeled molecules. Finally, we can also prepare new labeled molecules beyond amides, and pursue our long-term goal of being able to envision synthesis of imaging agents bearing any proposed organic structure, and developing methods to make them on a practical scale, suitable for in vivo imaging.

As part of this research, students will undergo a strong foundation of training in organic chemistry in addition to highly specialized training in radiochemistry with short-lived isotopes and radiopharmaceutical method development, ideally suited for future careers in the medicinal chemistry, radiopharmacy, and imaging sectors. Our lab is an interdisciplinary training setting located at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and trainees will have daily interaction with basic science researchers in physics, biochemistry, and microbiology, as well as engineering and medical researchers and practitioners. We will also avidly pursue technology transfer and commercialization of intellectual property resulting from our discoveries.