Metals, Peptides and Nuclear Medicine: Radiolabelled Peptides in Medical Imaging and Treatment

Becquerel Medal presented to Professor Helmut Maecke
4 April 2011 - London

The Radiochemistry Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) presented the Becquerel Medal to Professor Helmut Maecke during a symposium held in his honour at St Thomas Hospital, London, on 4 April 2011. During his lengthy career at the University of Basel, Helmut’s work led to 68Ga DOTATOC and 90Y DOTATOC becoming widely used radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis and therapy, respectively, of tumours which overexpress the somatostatin receptor.

The symposium was hosted by Professor Phil Blower of King’s College London and Professor Steve Mather of Queen Mary University.

The presentations included:

Clinical applications of labelled peptides
Dr Damian Wild, Freiberg University

Design of aza-macrocyclic chelators for bioconjugation
Dr Steve Archibald, University of Hull

Radiolabelling biomolecules with copper
Professor Jon Dilworth, University of Oxford

Self-assembly behaviour of peptide mimetics from ROMP polymers
Dr Stefano Biagini, University of Kent

Chelation of tripositive metal cations: the design of useful ligands
Professor Robert Hider, King’s College London

Radiochemistry challenges for the future of molecular imaging
Professor Bengt Langstrom, Uppsala University and Imperial College London

Presentation of the medal coincided with the UNESCO/IUPAC International Year of Chemistry and the centenary of the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Curie. The symposium concluded with a piano recital entitled From Polonium to Polonaise, a Homage to Marie Curie featuring a selection of music by Frederic Chopin played by Davide Di Censo.

Report submitted by Dr Jim Ballinger,
Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital, London