2015/1 - 2020/12 Collaborator, United States
My group has a fruitful collaboration with Dr Peter Scott from the University of Michigan (US) on pre clinical primate imaging of Trk receptor ligands. Dr Scott evaluates all our new Trk imaging agents for brain penetration, specific binding and metabolism. Our most recent publications in J Med Chem 2017/2018 were selected to be the front cover of J Med Chem's Aug/Feb issues.
2018/4 - 2020/1 Collaborator, United States
My group has engaged into a collaborative research project with Prof Scott Denmark from the University of Illinois. Prof Denmark provides my group with new boronic esters to evaluate their application in late stage Cu-catalysed 18F-radio fluorination.
2016/1 - 2020/1 Collaborator, Germany
Prof Dr P. Bartenstein (University of Munich, Germany) is the clinical lead scientist who helped us getting our tropomyosin kinase receptor ligands into a human clinical setting. As a result of the different legal governance of first-in-human PET tracer applications in Europe in comparison to Canada, we engaged into a most important research relationship with the Munich group who facilitated already two time the first in human application of our Trk radiotracers. After publication of first-in-human results, Health Canada allows for a Basic Research Protocol for PET, which enables us to bring these promising new radioligands to Canada.
2016/1 - 2020/1 Collaborator, Germany
We also collaborate with Prof. Dr. Wester from the TUMunich and developed a SiFA derivatized PSMA (Prostate Specific MembraneAntigen) binding radiotracer based on the flexible and favorable PSMA-binding lysine-urea-glutamate scaffold. PSMA is a highly promising biomarker for targeted prostate cancer imaging due to its high expression and upregulation in poorly differentiated, metastatic,and androgen-independent carcinomas. Our first inhuman study (currently 550 patients were scanned with our compound in Germany at different PET centers) in prostate cancer patients demonstrates impressively the tumor homing properties of SiFA-PSMA. We will bring this promising new imaging agent to Canadian healthcare providers after showcasing its utility at the CrossCancerInstitute (CCI) and the MICF. A publication of the clinical study currently conducted in Germany will be submitted in 2018/2019.
2015/1 - 2020/1 Collaborator, Germany
Prof Dr Fricker from the University of Heidelberg is an important collaborator on our tropomyosin receptor kinase radiotracer program. His group (especially Dr Anne Mahringer) performed the Pgp and BCRP efflux assays for our new Trk compounds that we found during a vigorous screening process. We have recently published our results in J Med Chem in 2017 and 2018
2007/1 - 2020/1 Collaborator, Germany
My group collaborates with Profs Dr Carmen Waengler and Bjoern Waengler from the University of Mannheim. Carmen Waengler did a 3 year postdoc in my group at McGill University and became an Assistant Professor after she returned to Germany. Bjoern Waengler was co-supervised by me during his PhD (I was Research Associate at the University of Mainz, Germany) from 2001-2004 and is now a full Professor in Manheim, Germany. My group extensively collaborates on SiFA radiolabeling and in vivo PET studies. We most recently engaged into a new project concerned with the labeling of nano particles for multimodal imaging that has recently been published in Bioconjugate Chem.
2005/2 - 2018/2 Collaborator, Germany
Since 2005 I work with Prof. Dr. K Jurkschat from the University of Dortmund (Germany) on the development of SiFA labeling methodologies. Dr Jurkschats group helps us developing new SiFA building blocks for peptide and protein labeling. Several of my former students (e.g. Dr C Waengler who is now an Assistant Prof. tenure at the University of Mannheim/Heidelberg and J. Chin who obtained his MSc degree in my group and is now in his last year at McGill med school) worked on topics that were derived from this collaboration.
2015/2 - 2017/2 Collaborator, Germany
We extensively collaborate with Prof. Dr. Ralf Weberskirch from the University of Dortmund (Germany) on radioactive labeling of SiFA-derivatised polymer based micelles as tumor imaging agents based on EPR effect and transport carriers for drug delivery. The Weberskirch group provides the nano-material and the labeling as well as the biological evaluation is performed at my lab using PET imaging. My postdoc Dr Larissa Kampmann comes from his group and co-supervised my MSc student Sheldon Berke who worked on that particular project and obtained his MSc degree in 2017. Sheldon is first author on a Bioconjugate Chem. publication from this collaborative project.
