Abstract
Nanomaterials offer unique physical, chemical and biological properties of interest for medical imaging. Among the various imaging modalities, positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) stand out for their exceptional sensitivity and spatial resolution, respectively. Through the use of radiolabelled nanomaterials, it becomes possible to conduct thorough in vivo assessments of nanoparticle pharmacokinetics, while MRI delivers precise anatomical insights. Furthermore, nanomaterials present a high surface-to-volume ratio, enabling them to carry a substantial payload of ligands such as proteins, antibodies, and peptides. This capability facilitates the vectorisation of these materials to specific regions of interest, based on molecular recognition, thereby offering an ideal scenario for diagnosing a wide array of conditions across various diseases. Another potential application of radiolabelled materials is the tracking of single particles by positron emission particle tracking (PEPT). PEPT enables rapid and precise localisation of a single radiolabelled particle as it moves within a piece of equipment. So far, PEPT has been limited to industrial sectors due to the lack of suitable radiolabelled single particle tracers for biomedical applications. However, our recent demonstration of PEPT in biomedicine marks a significant advancement. Implementing PEPT for biomedical applications might provide a novel and powerful diagnostic tool for real-time, whole-body assessment of blood flow dynamics in a quantitative manner.
About Juan Pellico
Juan Pellico Sáez obtained his BSc in chemistry from the University of Salamanca in 2010. After 2 years working as Research Assistant at the department of organic chemistry of the same university, he joined the advanced imaging unit at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid in 2012. There, he carried out his thesis under the supervision of Prof. Jesús Ruiz-Cabello and Dr. Fernando Herranz on the synthesis and radiolabelling of iron oxide nanoparticles for MRI and PET. He got the PhD degree in Chemistry from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) in 2016 and continued his postdoctoral research at CNIC with a Spanish grant. In 2018, he moved to the University of Oxford as postdoctoral research associate to work on the development of bio-responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles as contrast agents for MRI under the supervision of Prof. Jason J. Davis. Finally, he joined to the group of Dr. Rafael T.M de Rosales at King’s College London in 2019 as a senior postdoctoral research associate in radiochemistry and nanotechnology. During these years, Juan has published more than 40 works in peer-reviewed publications, 2 patents, supervised 2 PhD theses, 5 postgraduate and 5 undergraduate theses. Moreover, his achievements have been acknowledged with awards by prestigious societies such as the European Society of Molecular Imaging, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the UK Preclinical Imaging community. His main area of interest combines novel particulate PET tracers with the application of nanotechnology in biomedicine to develop a new generation of imaging agents for multimodal molecular imaging and particle tracking applications.
