Micro- and millifluidic platforms for imaging agent synthesis
type: CreativeWork
description: Molecular imaging, the non-invasive visualization of cellular and sub-cellular events, holds great promise to improve the basic understanding of biochemical processes and clinical diagnosis of diseases. One widely used molecular imaging technique is positron emission tomography (PET) that is especially useful for clinical oncology applications. PET has seen remarkable growth recently due to improvements in the regulation of PET radiotracers and the development of multimodal imaging set-ups that combine the sensitivity of PET with X-ray computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that provide anatomical details. To date the most widely used PET radiotracer is [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG). Despite the widespread use of [18F]FDG, 18F has a short half-life and [18F]FDG cannot detect certain cancers. There is a desire to develop radiometal-based radiotracers that have a wide selection of radioisotope half-lives from 10’s of minutes to days. Additionally, these tracers have the potential for flexible synthesis of tumor-specific tracers by easily changing the biomolecule (BM) utilized. However, radiometal-based PET radiotracers still face key challenges including (1) site-specific attachment of bifunctional chelators (BFCs), responsible for chelating the radiometal, to tumor-targeting biomolecules and (2) improving synthesis equipment to reduce reagent use and radiation shielding costs. My dissertation primarily focuses on addressing the challenges associated with radiometal-based PET radiotracer synthesis. “Click chemistry”, or more specifically Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), was utilized to address the concern regarding site-specific attachment of BFCs to BMs. CuAAC, like other “click reactions”, yields products with few side reactions under mild reaction conditions which is key when working with biomolecules. However, PET radiotracers are typically made in small batches because radioisotopes are utilized. Microfluidic platform…
abstract: Molecular imaging, the non-invasive visualization of cellular and sub-cellular events, holds great promise to improve the basic understanding of biochemical processes and clinical diagnosis of diseases. One widely used molecular imaging technique is positron emission tomography (PET) that is especially useful for clinical oncology applications. PET has seen remarkable growth recently due to improvements in the regulation of PET radiotracers and the development of multimodal imaging set-ups that combine the sensitivity of PET with X-ray computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that provide anatomical details. To date the most widely used PET radiotracer is [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG). Despite the widespread use of [18F]FDG, 18F has a short half-life and [18F]FDG cannot detect certain cancers. There is a desire to develop radiometal-based radiotracers that have a wide selection of radioisotope half-lives from 10’s of minutes to days. Additionally, these tracers have the potential for flexible synthesis of tumor-specific tracers by easily changing the biomolecule (BM) utilized. However, radiometal-based PET radiotracers still face key challenges including (1) site-specific attachment of bifunctional chelators (BFCs), responsible for chelating the radiometal, to tumor-targeting biomolecules and (2) improving synthesis equipment to reduce reagent use and radiation shielding costs. My dissertation primarily focuses on addressing the challenges associated with radiometal-based PET radiotracer synthesis. “Click chemistry”, or more specifically Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), was utilized to address the concern regarding site-specific attachment of BFCs to BMs. CuAAC, like other “click reactions”, yields products with few side reactions under mild reaction conditions which is key when working with biomolecules. However, PET radiotracers are typically made in small batches because radioisotopes are utilized. Microfluidic platform…
author: Whittenberg, Joseph James
language: en
keywords: Microfluidics, Click chemistry, Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition, Radiotracers, Millifluidics, Mixing, Nanoparticles
date published: 2017-09-29T17:56:24Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:35Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98332