Lumiphore scores SBIR grant for novel radiopharmaceuticals

Kathy Mahdoubi | | Health Imaging | Molecular Imaging

Biopharmaceutical company Lumiphore, from Berkeley, Calif., has captured a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation to develop novel macrocyclic chelating groups in an effort to create targeted radioisotope drug delivery systems, the company announced in April. 

The company is currently working on aromatic macrocyclic bifunctional chelators that are used in radioimmunotherapy and companion agents that use antibodies and other molecules as targeted drug delivery systems for specific anatomy and disease processes.

Examples of macrocyclic chelators including amides of the DOTA family of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-N,N', N",N"'-tetraacetic acid. These are labeled with monoclonal antibodies like in the case of DOTATATE.

Lumiphore’s proprietary agents are based on metal lanthanide and actinide chelation technology. The company expects to use the grant to improve the stability of chelation in novel metallic radioisotopes used for both therapy and imaging, especially in the realm of oncologic imaging.

 

Kathy Mahdoubi

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