The Fruhwirth Lab

A fantastic team effort allowed us to demonstrate proof-of-concept for spatiotemporal quantitative microRNA in vivo imaging. We built onto our NIS reporter gene approach and validated the new platform for a few microRNAs and exemplified dynamic in vivo imaging using miR-155 in a triple-negative breast cancer model. Excitingly, we found miR-155 expression to depend on the presence of innate immune cells in this model. The work was presented by Dr Alessia Volpe at WMIC 2023 and was very well received; for more details how we did this, have a look at the now published paper. Many thanks and congratulations to the whole team who worked hard to make this possible!

Many CONGRATULATIONS to Adeel for successfully defending his thesis – in a short while the official Award Certificate will fly in!

Many thanks to Prof David Cousins (University of Leicester) and Dr Margarita Dominguez-Villar (Imperial College London) for examining Adeel and making his viva such a joyful experience.

Very many CONGRATULATIONS go to Ines for completing her PhD studies on 3rd March 2023 with a very successful defence of her work. Many thanks to her examiners Jill Tipping and Marie Boyd.

Great recognition by our dear UK colleagues at the Preclinical Nuclear Imaging Forum 2023 in Hull. The work was started some time ago by Eleni, then continued by Alessia, and later by Cameron with the help of other team members.

We evaluated the radiolabelling of regulatory T cells with  Zr-89 at concentrations that could permit in vivo tracking by PET for longer than a few days. This work is now published open access at Molecules.

If you are interested in what we think is the best current alternative for real long-term tracking of regulatory T cells, have a look here.

…in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry. Many Congratulations to Rainbow!!!

DNA can form non-canonical structures including so-called G4 DNA quadruplexes. Their formation in vivo has been associated with a range of biological functions, hence they have been identified as potential drug targets, and G4 DNA-binding drug candidates have been developed. Here, we report the functionalisation of one of these well-established G4 DNA binders (based on a square planar platinum(II)-salphen complex) with two different radiolabelled complexes. An ¹¹¹In-conjugate was successfully used by Rainbow to assess its in vivo distribution in a mouse tumour model using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging. Rainbow’s work highlighted the accumulation of this Pt-salphen-¹¹¹In conjugate in the tumour.

This was a fantastic small meeting – exciting science, lovely colleagues! And beyond all the great science and talks – and they included opportunities to present on the international level also for PhD students (see Ines below!) – the organizers had chosen a superb location right at the beach with great food and ensured there was plenty of time for networking.

The COMULIS COST Action (Correlated Multimodal Imaging in Life Sciences) organised their 3rd conference at The Cyprus Institute in Nicosia in September 2023. First time for our lab to present at this meeting – thanks to the organisers. The conference put emphasis on correlative imaging methods able to capture the dynamics of life, spanning the whole range from molecular resolution to imaging whole organisms.

What we previously took for granted, has not been possible for many many moons – and so anticipation was very high for our first in-person lab Away Day for a very long times. We went on a river cruise from the on the Thames, added a few kilometers of walk on the riverbank enjoying the fabulous weather, before arriving at the Fuller’s Griffin Brewery. The team there gave us a great tour, and it even included beer tasting in their famous Hock Cellar. We concluded with splendid pub food nearby.