Proud of Sarah Harding giving yet another competitively selected oral presentation – this time at the 17th International PhD Student Cancer Conference held in Berlin (11-13 June 2024). And on top of great science, Sarah had a reunion with our former Masters student Jiexuan Jiang who is now a PhD candidate at the Max Delbrueck Centre and funded by the DAAD Graduate School Scholarship Programme and by the CharitĂŠ â Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Congratulations to Ines Costa on her second first author paper from her PhD work, this time in the “Red” journal –> In Vitro and Preclinical Systematic Dose-Effect Studies of Auger Electron- and β Particle-Emitting Radionuclides and External Beam Radiation for Cancer Treatment. Ines used our NIS reporter gene approach to comparatively determine and report reference dose-effect data using cell and tumor models for [99mTc]TcO4â, [123I]Iâ, and [188Re]ReO4â for the first time. We further demonstrate the tumor-controlling effects of [123I]Iâ and [188Re]ReO4â in comparison with external beam radiation therapy. Great 3-way collaboration between King’s College London (Samantha Terry and me) and National Physics Laboratories (Giuseppe Schettino).
…for winning one of the Best Oral Presentation Prizes for her excellent talk at the annual Research Symposium of the King’s College London’s School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences.
We are proud to have contributed all in vivo aspects to a large collaborative study entitled “Drug-resistant EGFR mutations promote lung cancer by stabilizing interfaces in ligand-free kinase-active EGFR oligomers” led by Marisa Martin-Fernandez from the Science Technology Facility Council’s Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories. Particular thanks go to Rico who has performed all the practical work on our side of the collaboration. This is another great example of different specialist imaging laboratories across the UK collaborating to reveal important mechanistic insight into drug-resistant lung cancers (see also press release).
Finally, the printed versions of the Methods Molecular Biology books we contributed to in recent times arrived – shiny nice printed versions for everyone in the lab to enjoy!
Big thanks to the efforts of Candice contributing the chapter “Generation of In Vivo Traceable Hepatocyte-Like Cells from Human iPSCs” to the book “Hepatocytes” (MIMB vol 2544) as well as Ben, Adeel, Chris, and in particular Alessia for the chapters “Genetic Engineering of Therapeutic Cells with the Sodium Iodide Symporter (NIS) to Enable Noninvasive In Vivo Therapy Tracking” and “The Basics of Visualizing, Analyzing, and Reporting Preclinical PET/CT Imaging Data” in the book “Positron Emission Tomography”.
The first two chapters provide detailed protocols to render diverse cell types in vivo traceable by radionuclide imaging. In the last chapter, which is intended as a guide for the new or still inexperienced PET/CT user, we describe the general principles and workflows required for PET/CT image data visualization and quantitative analysis using various software packages popular in the field. Importantly, we present recommendations for reporting of preclinical PET/CT data including examples of good and poor practice.
We were thrilled to host Dr Alessia Volpe from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. Alessia is an alumni of our team and speedily progressed to become a Chief Research Fellow and Research Associate in the Radiology Department at MSKCC. In her lecture entitled “Reporter Gene Imaging of CAR-T cell therapies: from Preclincal Models to Clinical Translation”, she showed us many really exciting aspects of her work at MSKCC, which was truly inspirational for all attendees. Thank you so much for visiting our Comprehensive Cancer Centre and hopefully we will hear from Alessia again soon. <2024-Mar-19>
Thank you ESMI for yet another fantastic Molecular Imaging conference – this time in Porto. It was filled with excellent science, great networking opportunities, and allowed us all to learn a lot!
Over the last month, we were very pleased to host Ms Stephanie Kure, a Master student from Graz University of Technology, in our lab. We had a great time together, Stephanie learnt a lot, and we are glad for all her contributions. And Stephanie made it even onto official KCL photoshoots đ
We all hope that last Thursday was not a Good-bye but in fact an ‘Auf Wiedersehn’!
Many CONGRATULATIONS to Rico who received his official PhD Award earlier this month after successfully passing his PhD viva in November 2023 – sometimes administrative mills take time to mill. Many thanks again to Prof Ijeoma Uchegbu (University College London), Prof Maya Thanou (King’s College London), and Dr WP Wang (Hong-Kong University) for examining Rico and making his viva such a joyful experience.
A great team effort in the arena of drug delivery, led by our PhD student Rico, and published early Jan 2024 in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. Congratulations Rico!
The Fruhwirth Lab 