Thuy Tran's Group

Our research focuses on the development of radiotracers for precision diagnostics, therapy and monitoring of diseases, with the emphasis in oncological diseases. We conduct studies including cyclotron production of exotic radiometals using solid target, novel radiotracer developments, and biological evaluation studies in vitro and in vivo to clinical translation.

With the access to a modern, new-built state-of-the art radiochemistry facility, equipped with 2 cyclotrons, a number of research and eGMP hotcells, several synthesis modules and new analytical instrumentations at the Karolinska Radiopharmacy, Karolinska University Hospital, we provide a wide range of radionuclides and tracers for research and clinical studies based on for example ¹⁵O, ¹¹C, ¹⁸F, ^66/67/68Ga, ^99mTc, ⁸⁹Zr and ¹⁷⁷Lu. Below are a few examples of our studies:

• Cyclotron-produced radiometals using solid target: For molecular imaging application, it is important to match the physical half-life of a radionuclide with the biological half-life of the molecules that are used; i.e. small molecules with fast kinetics should be labelled with short-lived while long-lived radiometals are well suitable with antibodies that have slow kinetics. The traditionally generator-produced ⁶⁸Ga and cyclotron-produced ⁶⁴Cu, and ⁸⁹Zr are increasingly used in nuclear medicine. We optimize and produce a number of radiometals (see table below) on a solid target that can be used to label different molecules spanning from small molecules (such as FAPI, PSMA), Affibody antibody and its fragments such as single chain variable fragment, scFv.