Chemistry for imaging

Molecular imaging is a powerful tool allowing a more accurate diagnosis of various diseases but also the monitoring of a treatment efficacy, thus playing a central role in the development of personalized medicine and drug discovery. Owing to a long-standing experience in the synthesis and the coordination chemistry of macrocyclic polyamines and porphyrin derivatives, we are particularly well armed to design and prepare molecular imaging agents containing metal ions (e.g. Gd complexes for MRI, radiometals complexes for nuclear medicine). Our contribution in this field includes the synthesis and physicochemical studies of new multifunctional chelating agents such as DOTAGA and NODAGA derivatives and the corresponding metal complexes (Cu, Ga, In, Zr, Gd,…), as well as radiochemistry and conjugation to various biovectors (antibodies, fragments, peptides,…) and nanoparticles. We specialized in the design of multimodal probes as the combination of complementary imaging techniques is attracting growing interest, both at a preclinical and clinical level (e.g. PET or SPECT/optical imaging for surgery assistance, PET/MRI offering both anatomical and functional information). We are also developing innovative site-specific bioconjugation techniques to access to chemically defined bioconjugates and "2nd generation" imaging agents. We are strongly involved in a translational network in the field of pharmaco-imaging in Dijon, which enable us to investigate our new multimodal imaging agents in the frame of different projects, with an easy access to a fully equipped preclinical imaging platform.

People involved: B. Collin (MCF uB), F. Denat (PU uB), N. Desbois (MCF uB), V. Goncalves (MCF uB), C. Goze (MCF uB), C. Gros (PU uB), M. Meyer (CR CNRS), M. Moreau (IE uB), A. Romieu (PU uB), I. Valverde (CR CNRS)