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John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | February 03, 2020
The collaboration aims to produce novel radiopharmaceuticals that can be used to detect and treat neurodegenerative diseases
Radiopharmaceutical manufacturer Fuzionaire Diagnostics (Fuzionaire Dx) has joined with McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital in a research agreement to develop new ways for detecting and treating neurodegenerative diseases.
Professionals from McGill and The Neuro will offer their expertise in nuclear medicine and clinical imaging to enable Fuzionaire Dx’s chemistry-driven discovery platform to produce radiopharmaceuticals that localize and image abnormal brain tissue for safe and affordable, noninvasive diagnostic tests that can be used to detect diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and traumatic brain injury.
“By combining strengths, we can expand our platform across the blood-brain barrier and work toward important new radiopharmaceuticals that could impact the health outcomes of many people,” said Nick Slavin, CEO of Fuzionaire Dx, in a statement.
Fuzionaire Dx’s platform can radiofluorinate molecules in seconds and at ambient temperatures. The Neuro and McGill are expected to help it produce novel radiopharmaceuticals that can better diagnose and treat cancer, tissue damage, and cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases. The aim is for the solution to become a tool that offers insights on the in vivo behavior of pharmaceutical lead compounds at an early stage. In addition, the collaboration will explore its ability to evaluate investigational therapies against neurodegenerative disease.
Assisting in these endeavors will be Dr. Jacob Hooker, an associate professor in radiology at Harvard Medical School and director of radiochemistry at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. The organic chemist, who is known for innovative radiochemistry methodology and developing imaging agents for the central nervous system, will join Fuzionaire Dx as a consultant and member of the scientific advisory board.
Other leaders in the collaboration include Dr. Jean-Philip Lumb, an associate professor of chemistry at McGill; Dr. Alexey Kostikov, assistant professor at the department of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill; and Anton Toutov, chief science officer of Fuzionaire Dx.
“The possibilities of this joint research project are compelling,” said Lumb in a statement. “We’re looking forward to exploring powerful new chemistry with the state-of-the-art radiochemistry and brain imaging infrastructure at McGill and The Neuro.”
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