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SUMMARY:Imaging biology in the cancer patient - Professor Kevin Brindle FM
 edSci (CRUK and Department of Biochemistry\, University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20140219T190000Z
DTEND:20140219T203000Z
UID:TALK49737@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ivan Lam
DESCRIPTION:_This talk is free for members of BioSoc or £2 for non-member
 s. You can also sign up for life membership (£15) at this talk._\n\nPatie
 nts with similar tumour types can have markedly different responses to the
  same treatment. The development of new treatments would benefit\, therefo
 re\, from the introduction of imaging methods that allow an early assessme
 nt of treatment response in individual patients\, allowing rapid selection
  of the most effective treatment.\n\nTumour cells have long been known to 
 display high rates of glucose utilisation in the presence of normal levels
  of oxygen.  In recent years it has become increasingly clear that this un
 usual glucose metabolism\, and the other metabolic changes observed in tum
 our cells\, are driven by oncogene activation and tumour suppressor loss. 
 This altered metabolism has provided ways of detecting tumours and their r
 esponses to treatment using metabolic imaging.\n\nWe have been developing 
 a new technique\, termed nuclear spin hyperpolarization\, which increases 
 sensitivity in the magnetic resonance experiment by >10\,000x.  This has a
 llowed us to image injected hyperpolarised 13C labelled cell substrates in
  vivo and\, more importantly\, their metabolic conversion into other metab
 olites.  We have shown how\, using various labelled substrates\, this tech
 nique can be used to monitor early evidence of treatment response and subs
 equent cell death and to investigate various aspects of the tumour microen
 vironment\, including the pH and redox state.  This technique has recently
  translated to the clinic and we expect to image the first patients in Cam
 bridge later this year.
LOCATION:Large Lecture Theatre\, Department of Plant Sciences\, Downing Si
 te
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