MIC-Tea Time-Webinar: Siderophore based molecular imaging of infections, from bench to bedside/MIC-Node: Development of Imaging Probes (DIP)

Clemens Decristoforo

1 DFP

Please register at mic@meduniwien.ac.at

Hosted by Oliver Langer (Department of Clinical Pharmacology)/MIC-Node: Development of Imaging Probes (DIP)

Clemens Decristoforo Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical University Innsbruck

studied Pharmacy in Innsbruck, then worked as Radiopharmacist and received his PhD at the Dep. of Nuclear Medicine. After a Post-doc Fellowship in London, he received habilitation, worked briefly for the IAEA and was awarded Professor in 2014. Today he works at the Med Uni Innsbruck.

Timely and accurate diagnosis of infections is crucial for effective patient care. Molecular imaging has the potential for specific and sensitive detection of infections, replacing current methods based on biopsy or anatomical imaging. One of few microbe-specific targets is the siderophore system, not existing in mammalian cells. Siderophores are iron-specific chelators recognized by specific microbial transporters.

In his talk, he will give an overview of his research using siderophores as tool for molecular imaging of infections. The proof of principle was the PET-imaging of pulmonary A. fumigatus infection using [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-triacetylfusarinine C, which was then expanded to imaging of bacterial infections (e.g. P. aeruginosa). Conjugation of siderophores and fluorescent dyes provided hybrid imaging compounds for PET and optical imaging. Also, theranostic approaches using siderophores for therapy will be shown. The high potential of these imaging probes recently was translated into clinical trials.

A contribution of the MIC-Node: Development of Imaging Probes (DIP), Medical University of Vienna