Dr Giancarlo Pascali

Position: Radiochemistry Team Leader (Camperdown)
Phone: +61 (0)2 9717 7611
Email:gianp@ansto.gov.au

Role at ANSTO

Giancarlo leads the Radiochemistry team at the Camperdown site. The group tasks are related to the synthesis of new radiopharmaceuticals for preclinical imaging studies (mainly in collaboration with BMRI), optimization of labelling and production procedures, and basic studies on radiochemical development.

Background

Giancarlo completed his PhD in Innovative Materials and Technologies at ISUFI (2004, Lecce, Italy) under the tutoring of P.A. Salvadori (IFC-CNR, Pisa, Italy) and W.C. Eckelman (NIH, Bethesda, MD USA), on the optimization of new radiolabelling approaches utilizing 94mTc, 64Cu and 18F. He was then appointed responsible of the Toxicology department of BioClinical Analysis for the University of Pisa (2005). He continued to collaborate on nuclear medicine related project (University of Milan, Milan Policlinico Hospital, Eckert&Ziegler). He joined IFC-CNR in Pisa (2009) as Key Scientist under the EU funded “Radiochemistry On Chip” project on the development of a microfluidic platform for performing radiofluorinations. He was appointed QC responsible (2011) for the GMP production site of FDG in IFC-CNR, Pisa. He was involved as Key Scientist in ARISLA funded project (2012) for the development of imaging tracers for ALS disease. Giancarlo joined ANSTO in January 2013 as the Radiochemistry Team Leader (Camperdown) in the Lifesciences division.

Research interests and areas of expertise

Giancarlo's area of expertise include: organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, analytical chemistry, microfluidic chemistry, process automation, radiolabelling utilizing PET and SPECT nuclides, pharmaceutical characterization, imaging techniques.

Current research interests are focused toward: novel radiofluorination technologies, 11C new chemistry, microfluidic innovation, continuous processing, receptor studies, theranostics optimization, pretargeting approaches, nanomaterials for drug delivery.

Qualifications & Achievements

PhD (Innovative Materials and Technologies) from the ISUFI-Universitá del Salento (2004) FARE Award (NIH, 2003) Master Degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pisa (2001, magna cum laude)

Key Publications

Arima, V., Pascali, G., Lade, O., Kretschmer, H. R., Bernsdorf, I., Hammond, V., Watts, P.,  De Leonardis, F., Tarn, M. D., Pamme, N., Dittrich, P. S., Cvetkovic, B. Z., Vasovic, N., et al. Radiochemistry on chip: towards dose-on-demand synthesis of PET radiopharmaceuticals. Lab on a Chip, 13, 2328-2336 (2013).

Pascali, G., Watts, P., Salvadori, P. A. Microfluidics in radiopharmaceutical chemistry. Nuclear Medicine and Biology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2013.04.004 (2013).

Tarn M.D., Pascali G., De Leonardis F., Watts P., Salvadori P.A., Pamme N. Purification of 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose by on-chip solid-phase extraction. Journal of Chromatography A, 1280, 117-121. (2013)

Watts P., Pascali G., Salvadori P.A. Positron Emission Tomography Radiosynthesis in Microreactors. Journal of Flow Chemistry, 2, 37-42. (2012)

Pascali G., Nannavecchia G., Pitzianti S., Salvadori P.A. Dose-on-demand of diverse 18F-fluorocholine derivatives through a two-step microfluidic approach. Nuclear Medicine and Biology, 38(5), 637-644. (2011)

Zacheo A., Arima V., Pascali G., Salvadori P.A., Zizzari A., Perrone E., De Marco L., Gigli G., Rinaldi R. Radioactivity resistance evaluation of polymeric materials for application in radiopharmaceutical production at microscale. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 11(1), 35-44. (2011)

De Leonardis F., Pascali G., Salvadori P.A., Watts P., Pamme N. On-chip pre-concentration and complexation of [18F]fluoride ions via regenerable anion exchange particles for radiochemical synthesis of Positron Emission Tomography tracers. Journal of Chromatography A, 1218(29), 4714-4719. (2011) 

Zizzari A., Arima V., Zacheo A., Pascali G., Salvadori P.A., Perrone E., Mangiullo D., Rinaldi R. Fabrication of SU-8 microreactors for radiopharmaceutical production. Microelectronic Engineering, 88(8), 1664-1667. (2011)

Pascali G., Mazzone G., Saccomanni G., Manera C., Salvadori P.A. Microfluidic approach for fast labeling optimization and dose-on-demand implementation. Nuclear Medicine and Biology, 37(5), 547-555. (2010)