Radiochemistry

Building on the outstanding success of the collaborations between the New Mexico Center for Isotopes and Medicine (NMCIM) and the graduate and research education programs in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico (UNM), the Nuclear and Radiochemistry Thrust Area seeks to further develop collaborative research and education programs. Several outstanding collaborations with the Department of Chemistry at New Mexico State University (NMSU) and the College of Engineering at New Mexico Tech (NMT) have already been developed and will play important roles in this thrust area. The IAS will seek to develop formal workshop, seminar, and student-faculty exchange programs that will lead to proposal development for collaborative research and joint training programs. This investment will increase the competitiveness of NMC and LANL faculty and scientific staff for external funding as well as provide badly needed scientists and engineers to meet the future nuclear and radiochemistry needs of the nation.

Background

Through the IAS Emerging Health Thrust Area, the New Mexico Center for Isotopes in Medicine (NMCIM) at the UNM College of Pharmacy (COP) and the UNM Cancer Research and Treatment Center (UNM CRTC) has received programmatic support for several activities for partial leader salaries and workshops. The mission of NMCIM is to develop unique medically-useful radioisotopes, in collaboration with the LANL Isotope Production Facility (IPF). The IPF is a beam spur off of the LANL linear accelerator (LINAC) that produces unique gamma emitting and Positron Emitting Tomography (PET) isotopes that have not historically been available in sufficient quantities for product development. The IPF represents a $30M investment in infrastructure. While LANL has unique capabilities in the production of novel isotopes, it does not have the ability to formulate or test potentially useful medical products. Thus NMCIM was established to develop medically useful radioisotope formulations for cancer imaging and therapy, and eventually for the detection of other diseases.

The UNM Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Program (RSP) brings its longstanding expertise in handling, formulation, research and development of medical isotopes to establish medically useful radiopharmaceuticals. The UNM RSP will work with renowned scientists and commercial sponsors to develop products and markets for the radioisotopes from LANL IPF. UNM RSP will develop radiochemical procedures and formulations, will test these novel radiopharmaceuticals in appropriate in vitro and in vivo models leading to clinical trials for diagnostic and therapeutic agents. It is anticipated that the NMCIM will contribute to the interdisciplinary research and education programs of the UNM Health Sciences Center and UNM main campus and will strongly support the Cancer Center imaging and therapy program in product development and future Neuroscience imaging approaches. NMCIM will also support economic development in New Mexico by attracting new radioisotope- and radiopharmaceutical-related businesses and activities to the state. The Center also plans to be active in workforce development through the new Technology Research Consortium (TRC) State of New Mexico initiative. For more information please visit our website located at http://hsc.unm.edu/pharmacy/isotope.

Excellence and Competitive Advantages

The UNM College of Pharmacy has a national and international reputation in the area of radiopharmacy. We started the first centralized radiopharmacy at UNM in 1971 and have trained many of the world’s leaders in the commercial radiopharmacy field. Over 31 graduate students have been trained in our program. We currently offer the only web-based on-line radiopharmacy certification program in the U.S., Nuclear Education Online (NEO). NEO has trained over 300 students. Drs. Scott Burchiel (director of NMCIM and professor at UNM College of Pharmacy), Norenberg, and Miao have experience in the development of radiolabled antibodies, peptides, and small molecule imaging agents that have proven useful in cancer detection and other diseases. Summa Medical Corporation (now Cardinal Health Care) was started in 1979 based on the promise of research and patents that came from COP technology. There is now a unique opportunity to utilize novel radioisotopes being produced at the LANL IPF to develop a new generation of radiopharmaceuticals.

Relationship to Institutional Goals

NMCIM has been identified by the COP as one of its two Signature Programs. Cheryl Willman, M.D., Director of the UNM Cancer Center, and the UNM CRTC have identified medical isotope imaging and therapy as two key areas for development. The UNM CRTC and COP currently operate and support the Keck University Small Animal Imaging Resource (KUSAIR). At the request of New Mexico Governor Richardson and Arizona Governor Napolitano, new partnerships are currently being developed between the UNM CRTC and the University of Arizona Cancer Center for preclinical and clinical imaging and therapy. Dr. Scott Burchiel of UNM serves on the Senior Leadership team for the UNM Cancer Center. The NMCIM will also be highly integrated with the Clinical Translation Science Center (CTSC), a top research priority of Dr. Paul Roth, Executive Vice President, Health Sciences Center (HSC). Thus, NMCIM is a Center that bridges the UNM HSC and the UNM Main Campus. The Center is a critical part of the Institute for Advanced Studies and is receiving funding to support workshops and leadership from IAS. The Center will be considered for direct funding by IAS during 2008. The Center has been identified as a key priority and strategic initiative by LANL.

Collaborations and Partnerships

There are over 20 members of NMCIM, four of whom are full-time faculty in the COP (Burchiel, Miao, Norenberg, Pieper), two COP staff members (Anderson, Post-Doc TBD). In addition, there are three LANL scientists who have graduate faculty appointments within the COP (Dr. Robert Atcher, a scientist at LANL and a UNM-LANL professor in Radiopharmacy, Peterson, Nortier). There are also several commercial partners who are members of the NMCIM, including Robert Rubin, MD, CEO of Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, and Roy Brown, executive director of the Commission on Radiopharmaceuticals and Radionuclides (CORAR). There are also three key collaborators from the CRTC, Drs. Larson, Prossnitz, and Sklar, who are working on two projects pursuing radiolabeled biomarkers for cancer detection and/or therapy. There are also key partners at New Mexico Highlands (Martinez), and New Mexico State (Arterburn) Universities. NMCIM is partnering with GE Healthcare on the development of a Ga68 Generator for PET imaging.

Collaboration with UNM Cancer Center

The UNM Cancer Center and its Director, Dr. Willman, have expressed strong interest and support for NMCIM and have developed a plan for unique imaging and radiotherapy facilities in the new CRTC 2 facility. NMCIM investigators have been working with Drs. Willman, Sklar, Heintz, Burchiel, Norenberg, and Pieper on the evaluation of Request for Proposal (RFP) responses from existing cyclotron-operating companies as potential partners for the purchase, installation, and operation of a cyclotron and PET radiopharmacy. This facility would be used for routine clinical studies in cancer, as a training facility for nuclear medicine scientists, and could be a key component of a new emphasis for translation science and the CTSC. The PET isotope labeling facility (with hot cells) in the new CRTC 2 would greatly augment the capacity of the Cancer Center to perform clinical evaluation of responses to therapies through PET imaging, allow for the development of novel imaging agents (in collaboration with LANL), and develop novel radioisotopes and formulation for cancer therapy. A clinical PET imaging facility will also be of interest to other investigators at UNM in Neurosciences and cardiovascular disease; an RFP was issued and UNM CRTC is currently in negotiations with respondents. We believe that this new dimension and unique partnership will improve patient care and will make the UNM CRTC extremely competitive for its future P30 renewals (as highlighted by the CRTC External Advisory Committees)

PharmD/PhD program with UC Campuses

UNM COP is developing new partnerships for the development of a PharmD/PhD program in PET Radiopharmacy, Radiochemistry, and Radiopharmacology with University of California (UC) campuses that have similar or complementary programs; successful teaming with UC campuses may eventually lead to research funding through LANL.

UNM/LANL Collaboration in Nuclear and Radiochemistry Programs

This effort identified four possible initiatives to develop collaborations between UNM and LANL in nuclear and radiochemistry programs. (1) A National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded joint summer school to train radiochemists with an emphasis on medical applications. (2) Collaboration on the proposal for the competed renewal of the UNM Cancer Center grant. The National Cancer Institute recently awarded UNM the designation "Cancer Center." The center grant that is part of this designation is due for competed renewal in 2010. (3) Joint appointments between LANL and the UNM Cancer Center to support this collaboration. (4) Supporting collaboration between UNM and LANL and UC San Diego (UCSD) on the UCSD radiopharmacy program by rotating the UCSD students through active research programs at LANL and UNM. The challenge presented in this effort was to identify opportunities to improve and expand interactions between the lab and the New Mexico campuses in Nuclear and Radiochemistry programs.

In connection with this activity we held a workshop on the training and education needs of the nuclear and radiochemistry programs at LANL. One of the objectives of this workshop was to identify where UNM could play a role in training and education. We believe that there is an opportunity to apply to NIH for support for a summer school to train radiochemists at the undergraduate level (modeled on a similar program supported by the Department of Energy [DOE]) with a special emphasis on medical applications. The summer school would be housed at UNM with substantial time spent at LANL for introduction to topics including radioisotope production and separations, radionuclide generator development, radiopharmaceutical chemistry, ligand generation, and enriched stable isotope applications for structural NMR, proteomics, metabolomics and other applications. We anticipate that this activity will continue in FY2009.

We have also identified an opportunity to increase collaborations between LANL investigators and the UNM Cancer Research and Treatment Center. As stated above, UNM's Cancer Center grant is due for competed renewal in 2010. We will identify collaborations that will strengthen this renewal application with a target of draft proposals in the Spring of 2009. In addition, we will identify candidates for joint appointments in the appropriate department at UNM to solidify these interactions.

Joint Educational Programs with UC in Radiochemistry

We have been exploring opportunities for interactions that include LANL, UNM and UC campuses. One example has been the creation of a radiopharmacy program at UCSD. UNM is involved in this activity and LANL has also participated in the planning stages. We are at the early stage of preparing a proposal for rotating students and trainees at UCSD through laboratories of investigators who have successfully competed for external, peer-reviewed, funding in order to familiarize them with projects that range from basic research to much more applied development-stage activity.

Partnership with the New Mexico Computing Applications Center in Emerging Health

We organized a session at the recent IAS 2008 meeting in Las Cruces, NM on the potential use of the new Encanto Supercomputer that the State of New Mexico has purchased and placed at Intel. The breakout session focused on the use of the Supercomputer for real time image processing and quantitative pharmacokinetic modeling for preclinical drug development. Genomic applications were also discussed with presentations from all three of the NMC universities.

Center for Temporal Spatial Analysis

Support for Dr. Jan Oliver’s Center for Temporal Spatial Analysis P50 grant ($10K/year for students and seminars) and the Q-Bio conference ($20K/year for students and conference costs).

Contact: Scott Burchiel, University of New Mexico Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

SBurchiel@salud.unm.edu 505-272-0920