Wed, 09 Nov 2022
Events, Seminar Series
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Dr. Hua Yang

TRIUMF

Emerging therapeutic radionuclides: production, radiochemistry and preclinical evaluation.

Wednesday, November 09, 2022
SSB 7172 @ 3:30 p.m.

Host: Dr. Caterina Ramogida

 

Abstract

Therapeutic radionuclides are gaining global interest in recent years, following the remarkable results seen with [177Lu]Lu-DOTATATE (Lutathera) to treat neuroendocrine tumour, [223Ra]RaCl2 (Xofigo) to treat symptomatic bone metastasis in prostate cancer, and more recently [225Ac]Ac-PSMA617 to treat metastatic prostate cancer. One of the limitations of unconventional radionuclide therapy is the production of the isotopes and subsequent chemistry development. TRIUMF is Canada’s prime cyclotron facility, and one of our major commitments is to produce medical isotopes and support related research. In this seminar, Dr. Yang will talk about the characteristics and limitations of emerging cancer theranostic radionuclides and TRIUMF’s efforts to produce some of the isotopes to ease the supply shortage. She will also review recent advances in chelation chemistry for the unconventional isotopes, conjugation to biomolecules (peptides) and their applications in several preclinical studies.  

Biography

Dr. Hua Yang is a Research Scientist at the Life Sciences Division at TRIUMF and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Chemistry at SFU.  After completing her Ph.D. in Chemistry from McGill University, she moved to Vancouver and did postdoc research at UBC and TRIUMF. She then served as a Lab Manager and later a Research Manager in the Life Sciences Division at TRIUMF before transferring to be a Research Scientist in 2021.  Her research focus is on using radionuclides for cancer imaging and therapy, using a range of unconventional isotopes including 225Ac, 155/161Tb, 213Bi and 227Th.