People

Tumour Angiogenesis, Radiotracer Development, In vitro testing, Method Development

I am a clinical cardiothoracic radiologist with experience in lung, cardiovascular and oncologic imaging. I am interested in multidisciplinary research approaches with the application of novel imaging techniques and advanced quantitative software tools to provide better analysis of disease states and wish to develop imaging as a biomarker. In addition to the relatively traditional single organ system approach, I am interested in the interactions of these systems within the larger groups of diseases, including COPD, asthma, atherosclerosis and cancer. Towards this end, I intend to develop programs that will appeal to multiple specialities that may not currently be working together within a single group of researchers. Apart from these ideas and interests, I am trained in Clinical Epidemiology and am interested in developing Evidence Based Radiology into clinical practice and build this within the registrar training scheme. It is my firm belief that this will aid in developing an academic career pathway within Radiology. My current role is that of director of the clinical research imaging centre, which houses 3T MRI, 128 PET-CT and 320 detector row CT. This is supported by a GE cyclotron with a fully functional MHRA inspected GMP radiochemistry facility as well as a research laboratory, allowing clinical/research production as well as development of novel radiotracers. An integrated advanced image analysis laboratory completes the centre.

I am a Radiochemist with experience in both SPECT and PET chemistry. Before I came to Glasgow, I worked for many years as both a radiochemist and a synthetic chemist in the radiopharmaceutical industry. My interests are using radiotracers to look at changes in biological chemistry in disease. As such, I’m interested in the development of novel radiotracers, which is a multi-disciplinary process bringing together chemistry, radiochemistry and biology, and the translation of such new tracers from a pre-clinical phase into the clinic. I’m also interested in the clinical applications of new and existing radiotracers, in which I collaborate with colleagues in Clinical Physics and Psychological Medicine. Beyond the development and use of tracers, I’m interested in the development of radiolabelling and purification methods

My scientific interest involves Molecular Imaging applied to oncology field. In particular, I support the use of PET imaging in order to evaluate and assess a tumour's stage and metabolism, and set up a proper therapeutic strategy.

Neuroinflammation is a common factor in a variety of neurological disorders, including dementia. Thanks to molecular imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET), the extent of neuroinflammation can be detected in vivo, assisting with diagnosis and monitoring of the disease, as well as benefiting the preclinical research. During my PhD project, I will be studying 18kDa translocator protein (TSPO) as a biomarker for neuroinflammation and validating the use of novel TSPO radiotracers to image dementia-associated neuroinflammation in preclinical dementia models. In addition, I will assess the cellular distribution of TSPO in the brain under physiological and pathophysiological conditions.

Cancer research and development, drug discovery of antitumoral agents, targeted therapies, molecular imaging as innovative tool of diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours, medicinal chemistry of PARP inhibitors, radiochemistry, pre-clinical studies.