Summary

Radiopharmaceutical Development

Radiopharmaceutical science is a highly interdisciplinary field encompassing pharmaceutical sciences, chemistry, biotechnology, medical physics, biology and medicine. Research projects are focused on the identification of novel radiopharmaceuticals in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic medicine. The overall aim is to design and develop novel imaging techniques to study human diseases. The clinically oriented projects include the evaluation of theranostic radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography (PET) and radionuclide therapy as well as optical imaging agents to be used for image-guided surgery.

Using innovative biotechnological and chemical methods, biologically active molecules are identified and labelled with radionuclides or fluorescent dyes in order to visualize in vivo biochemical processes. The resulting radiopharmaceuticals are used for diagnostic imaging or therapy of patients and might help to establish novel treatment regimen for a more precise and sensitive detection of tumors. Novel compounds aiming at different tumor entities will be identified and optimized in respect to their tumor targeting and pharmacokinetic properties. A special interest will be in tumor heterogeneity and the targeting of molecular mechanisms underlying tumor cell invasion and metastasis.