91˿Ƶ

Event

Killam Seminar Series: PET Neuroimaging in Drug Discovery

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 16:00to17:00
de Grandpre Communications Centre, The Neuro

Supported by the generosity of the Killam Trusts, The Neuro's Killam Seminar Series invites outstanding guest speakers whose research is of interest to the scientific community at The Neuro and 91˿Ƶ.


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Dz:Gassan Massarweh


PET Neuroimaging in Drug Discovery

Neil Vasdev
Brain Health Imaging Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) & Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

Abstract:This presentation will focus on some non-traditional approaches to prepare radiopharmaceuticals for new targets to image the human brain and aims to show the intricacies of developing radiopharmaceuticals from "bench to bedside". Specifically, cutting-edge approaches and technologies for imaging receptors and signal transduction pathways with PET, as well as our recent work to expand beyond the “amyloid cascade hypothesis” of Alzheimer’s disease, including tauopathies, will be presented. Several of the neuroimaging agents have also been applied as oncology probes, and examples where we have been “learning from cancer” imaging research will be discussed. An outlook with examples of how academic-pharma partnerships have shaped our imaging program and the vision for a Canada-wide training program for radiopharmaceutical and medical imaging sciences will also be highlighted. The intricacies of transitioning labeled compounds to PET radiopharmaceuticals and our aspiration to work towards the ultimate, albeit impossible, goal in the field: to radiolabel virtually any compound for PET will be raised as points for discussion.

Headshot portrait of NeilProf. Neil Vasdev is the Director and Chief Radiochemist of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Brain Health Imaging Centre, and the Director of the Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry. He is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Radiochemistry and Medical Imaging, the endowed Azrieli Chair in Brain and Behaviour and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Neil trained in chemistry and neuroscience for his undergraduate training and continued to complete a PhD supported by NSERC at McMaster University, and subsequently completed an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at Berkeley National Laboratories. He began his faculty career at CAMH/University of Toronto in 2004. In 2011, he was recruited as faculty to the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and was recruited back to Toronto in 2018. His research focuses on the development of new PET radiopharmaceuticals for imaging the living human brain, with a particular interest in neurodegenerative diseases including tauopathies. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and delivered over 200 invited lectures and holds over 10 families of patents. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

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The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital)is a bilingual academic healthcare institution. We are a91˿Ƶ research and teaching institute; delivering high-quality patient care, as part of the Neuroscience Mission of the 91˿Ƶ Health Centre.We areproud to be a Killam Institution, supported by the Killam Trusts.

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