Nationality: Norwegian
Background: I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh, UK (MChem Medicinal and Biological chemistry), after which I worked for just under four years as a peptide scientist at Almac Sciences, custom manufacturing peptides for research use.
My research interests: improving methodology to provide personalized healthcare, through the development of novel techniques for cancer detection and intervention
My PhD goals: Learn new skills and endeavour to tackle the challenges posed by this PhD. Learn a new language!
My hobbies: Reading, Jewellery-making, Cinema
My project in MIPrecise: MIPs targeting cancer-associated glycan motifs
Master thesis: Optimisation of the Radiosynthesis of [18F]LW223: a PET Radiotracer for the Translocator Protein (TSPO)
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a molecular imaging technique which provides the quantitative in vivo visualisation of biological processes. The Translocator protein (18 kDa) (TSPO), a biomarker for certain cancers (breast, ovarian, colon) and brain injury, can be imaged using a PET tracer. The tracer [18F]LW223 has shown promising characteristics such as high affinity in human brain and heart tissue for TSPO, and low sensitivity to the TSPO polymorphism. This paper investigated the optimisation of the radiosynthesis to produce [18F]LW223.
In order to study various reaction conditions, a new manual labelling method was created to dry [18F]fluoride and perform the radiosynthesis. This consisted of a sealed reaction vial with a series of vent vials and a carbon trap, ensuring the reaction could take place under anhydrous conditions and protect the user from gaseous radiation exposure. An improvised radio-TLC method was also devised to quantify the reaction conversion, as the scanner was unavailable for use. It used silica thin-layer chromatography plates to separate the reaction mixture, and a gamma counter to quantify the activity on the plate. However, this technique was proven to be inconsistent and inaccurate.
Using the manual labelling method, the reaction solvent, time, temperature, precursor concentration, phase transfer reagent, and reformulation system were studied. The reaction tended to take place with higher conversion in more polar solvents, specifically in acetonitrile (MeCN) at 80 °C and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at 100 °C. Decreasing the concentration of the precursor from 2.5 mg/mL to 1.25 mg/mL increased the conversion in both MeCN and DMSO, but changing the phase transfer reagent from Kryptofix® to DMAP reduced conversion to zero. Furthermore, the reformulation of LW223 from the reaction solvent into a biologically compatible 10% ethanol in saline solution was most effective using a Sep-Pak® tC18 or Oasis® PRiME HLB solid phase extraction cartridge, conditioned with ethanol and water.
Finally, an automated synthesiser method for the GE TRACERlab FXFN was produced using these optimised reaction conditions. It is complete, and ready to be tested, in order to examine the manual labelling method’s ability to translate an automated synthesis. MSc supervisors: Dr. Timaeus Morgan and Dr. Adriana Tavares (University of Edinburgh, PET is Wonderful (PiW) research group)