Dr. Ralf Schirrmacher
Dr. Ralf Schirrmacher PhD studied Chemistry/Radiochemistry in Cologne, Germany from 1990 until 1999 where he acquired his PhD at Mainz University. After a brief stint at the University of Pennsylvania working under Dr. Chin Shiu and Dr. Abass Alavi, he returned to Germany to assume a position as lead radiochemist at the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Mainz University where he stayed until 2006. In 2007 he was appointed Associate Professor at McGill University where he became a Canada Research Chair Tier II for Radiochemistry and worked as Director of Cyclotron at the world renowned Montreal Neurological Institute and the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research. After getting tenure in 2012 he continued working at the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre developing new radioligands for brain PET. In 2014 he assumed a position as an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Oncology where he was promoted to full professor in 2018. Dr. Schirrmacher is an adjunct member of Pharmacy and Chemistry.
Travis Kronemann-PhD
Travis obtained his BSc (hon) in Physiology from the University of Alberta in 2021, during which time he spent four summer research studentships in Dr. Ralf Schirrmacher’s group through the Department of Oncology. He began his graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry in September 2021 and is currently a Chemical Biology PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Ralf Schirrmacher. His work primarily focuses on the development of novel radiopharmaceuticals for positron-emission tomography imaging and therapy of cancer. Travis is a passionate educator and deeply enjoys teaching undergraduate chemistry students and tutoring through various non-profit organizations. When he is not busy pestering Ms. Yinglan Pu in the lab, he enjoys running, hiking, and playing chess.
Carolin Jaworski (M.Sc.) – Ph.D. Student
Carolin obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 2016 from the Technical University in Dortmund
(Germany) in the research group of Prof. Dr. Jörg Tiller and continued with her Master’s studies at the same university. In 2018, Carolin came to the University of Alberta as a Visiting Graduate Student for the co-supervision of her master thesis “Synthesis and 18 F-Radiolabeling of Tropomyosin Receptor (Trk) Ligands for Positron-Emission-Tomography (PET)” by Dr. Ralf Schirrmacher (Department of Oncology, University of Alberta) and Prof. Dr. Ralf Weberskirch (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Technical University of Dortmund). After completing her Master’s degree in 2019, Carolin started her Ph.D. studies at the University of Alberta in September 2019 under the guidance of Dr. Ralf Schirrmacher in the Department of Chemistry. She works on the development and radiolabeling of radiotracers for PET imaging and the late-stage 18F-fluorination of aromatic compounds.
Pu Yinglan
Pu Yinglan studied from September 2011 to July 2015 as an undergraduate student at Shanxi University of Science and Technology. She graduated as a postgraduate student in June 2018, majored in Pharmaceutical Engineering and specialized in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Computer Aid Drug Design (CADD). In the first year of her postgraduate study, she mainly focused on the area of CADD at Sichuan University of Science and Engineering. In her second and third year, she was working at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science with Professor Zuo Zhili, did synthetic work and helped partners perform bioassays. She already published three papers as first author and holds one patent. Apart from attending classes, she also worked in Professor Kong Yang`s lab, taking part in the research area of phytochemistry, on the research topic “Extraction and Separation of Secondary Metabolites of Oleander.” Pu will start her PhD at the Chemistry Department of the University of Alberta in the Schirrmacher group in January 2019 on radiolabeling of novel cancer imaging agents and neuro-PET chemistry.
Lexi Gower-Fry
Lexi studied at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia from 2016-2020 where she obtained a Joint BSc (hon) in Chemistry and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She completed her previous research under the supervision of Dr. Caterina Ramogida where she worked on developing macrocyclic chelators for Hg-197, a theranostic nuclide. She joined the Schirrmacher group at the University of Alberta in Sept. 2020 as a new graduate student where she is currently working on developing bimodal imaging and therapeutic radioligands.
Angelina Torres
Angelina Torres joined the Schirrmacher group as a Research Assistant in February 2020 providing essential administrative support. She helps with the development of lectures, presentations and courses and supports the group with her valuable experience as an administrator and group coordinator. She further facilitates group meetings and functions as a contact for new students who are interested in joining the Schirrmacher group.