Medicinal Chemistry and Radiochemistry Core
Core Leads: Robert H. Mach PhD, Zhude Tu PhD, E. James Petersson PhD, Chester A. Mathis PhD, Neil Vasdev, PhD
The Medicinal Chemistry and Radiochemistry (MCRC) Core represents the central hub of activity of this U19 Center. The initial focus of the MCRC Core is the use of novel in silico methods for the identification of lead compounds for PET radiotracer development for alpha synuclein (Asyn) and 4R tau, a new approach to lead compound identification in the field of PET radiotracer development. Once in silico hits have been confirmed as true lead compounds from the radioligand binding studies conducted in Projects 1 and 2, the MCRC Core will be responsible for conducting structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies to identify compounds with the appropriate properties for radiolabeling and additional in vitro and in vivo characterization. The radiolabeling studies will be conducted by the radiochemistry component of the MCRC Core. This Core will also conduct scale-up synthesis of precursors and standards required for the imaging studies conducted by the Clinical Imaging Core.
