The Rosalind Franklin Institute and Mary Lyon Centre are collaborating on a new project which will explore new ways of chemically labelling living cells. These new labels will open up new ways of probing and understanding biology.
Positron Emission Tomography, or PET, is a powerful imaging tool which is commonly used in the fields of oncology and neurology to diagnose disease and even deliver therapeutics. PET imaging relies on radioactive tracers which chemically label a specific substance and track its distribution within a cell or tissue. The partners aim to develop novel radiotracers which can be used for PET imaging to address new biological questions.
Professor Ben Davis, Science Director for Next Generation Chemistry, said, “We think that we can harness PET imaging to understand fundamental biochemical processes which will help us to better understand disease and hopefully open up new avenues of treatment. We are thrilled to be taking the first steps doing this with the Mary Lyon Centre as project partners, their expertise will be fundamental to helping us succeed.”
Sara Wells, Director of the Mary Lyon Centre at MRC Harwell says, “Being part of this project and having access to the new PET scanner is an exciting development for the Mary Lyon Centre. It will give the MLC a chance to image and more deeply characterise in vivo models of human disease and the targets of potential therapeutics.”
The project has kicked off with the purchase of a new PET scanner from MR Solutions which will be housed at the Mary Lyon Centre. The new PET scanner arrived and was installed in the summer.
John McGrath, MR Solutions, said, “We are thrilled to install a PET scanner at the Mary Lyon Centre. This cutting-edge equipment promises to revolutionize the institution’s research capabilities, particularly in the realm of preclinical imaging. The close proximity to MR Solutions research and development, based in Abingdon, further enhances the collaborative potential and access to unique resources.
“The convergence of expertise from this renowned research group in molecular imaging amplifies this excitement, offering a wealth of knowledge and innovative ideas to explore. With the PET scanner now at their disposal, researchers can embark on a journey of discovery, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in understanding biological processes at the molecular level.”
This PET imaging development work will be complimentary to other imaging work already underway between the Franklin and Mary Lyon Centre. The Grange lab group is currently working on unravelling the molecular details of processes within cells and tissues using electron cryo-tomography.
Dr Michael Grange, Group leader at the Franklin, said “One of the main issues with investigating tissues is the ability to localise specific signals for analysis. This development of new radiotracers should enable us to play with new ways of labelling tissues that allow us to, potentially, triage how molecules are arranged within disease relevant regions. Excitingly, this project may enable us to look at the molecular mechanism of how treatments work.”
This work also fits within a wider scheme, based in Oxford, to harness the power of PET in pre-clinical studies and bring together experimental ideas in molecular and functional imaging to enable to step-change in the understanding of organismal biology.
Professor Veronique Gouverneur, Professor at the University of Oxford, said, “This new preclinical initiative is an exciting opportunity for the field of molecular imaging. The Franklin, the University of Oxford and more broadly the Thames Valley region represent a dense ecosystem with outstanding scientists across all the disciplines encompassed by PET imaging. Very exciting science will emerge in the next few years ultimately for the benefit of patient care.”
Professor Daniel Antony, Professor at the University of Oxford, said, “This begins a transformative era in molecular imaging in the Thames Valley. The introduction of such advanced imaging capabilities means that we will have new opportunities for discoveries to be made in the whole body, where complex biological processes are illuminated as never before, paving the way for novel therapeutic interventions.”
As we eagerly anticipate the arrival of this new PET imaging kit and are keen to collaborate with researchers who are looking to develop new radiotracers – if you would like to talk about a possible collaboration please e-mail info@rfi.ac.uk and we will put you in touch with the team.