Radiotracer characterisation and pharmacology
ANSTO LifeSciences' radiotracer characterisation and pharmacology capabilities and facilities include capabilities for evaluating novel compounds or radiotracers for their ability to target tissues of interest. Using comprehensive and up-to-date in vitro and in vivo screening methods, we are able to validate novel radiolabelled or unlabelled compounds.
Capabilities
In vitro characterisation of novel compounds or radiotracers
- Extraction of receptors of interest from live cells or tissue samples
- Competition binding studies to determine the specificity and selectivity of ligands
- Saturation binding studies to determine the Bmax and Kd of receptors
- Drug solubility determination
- Pharmaco-dynamic assays to examine the physiological effects of new compounds in cells including cytotoxicity and proliferation
- Cellular uptake studies to evaluate the uptake kinetics in cell cultures
- Autoradiography to evaluate the distribution of the target in tissue sections using radiotracers
In vitro evaluation of target expression
- Immunoassays including histology and flow cytometry techniques for analysing protein or receptor expression in cells or tissues
- Real time PCR quantification of target DNA expression
In vivo radiotracer characterisation
- In vivo imaging with small animal PET/CT and SPECT/CT
- Whole body dynamic imaging of single or multiple animals
- Absolute quantification in organs (Bq/ml)
- Estimation of a range of pharmaco-kinetic parameters in outlined organs
- Biodistribution analysis of radiotracer uptake in selected organs
- In vivo blocking studies to evaluate the selectivity of radioligand binding
- In vivo stability studies to quantitatively determine the amount of unchanged radiotracer in blood, plasma and selected organs
Facilities
- In vitro and in vivo pharmacology laboratories
- Cell culture facilities
- Dark room facilities
- Animal housing facilities
- BAS-5000 and BAS-2500 phosphorimaging systems
- Wallac 1480 and 2480 gamma counters
- Packard 2100 and Tri-carb 2800 liquid scintillation counters
- Beckman Coulter Cell Lab Quanta SC Flow cytometer
- Bio-Rad iQ5 Real time PCR machine
- Molecular Devices Spectra Max M5 and Versa Max microplate readers
- Olympus BX41 fluorescent microscope
- Leica CM3050 S cryostat
Related research
Areas of interest
- In vitro pharmacological profiling of new radiotracers
- Development of new methodologies for screening novel compounds
- Target protein expression analysis in tissues or cells
- In vivo radiotracer screening and characterisation
- Animal model development