Chemistry professor awarded NSF grant

By Steve Carr

UNM Chemistry Professor Richard Kemp has received a three-year, $425,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) program to develop a new route to carbon-radiolabeled intermediates designed to increase the diversity of Positron Emission Topography (PET) imaging agents. PET is a non-invasive imaging modality that complements CAT scans, MRI’s and X-rays.

Radiotracers essentially locate activity within a given organ where it is used to identify normal body functions such as metabolism, as well as potential medical problems such as heart problems, tumors and cancers.

The unique aspect to the research funded within the GOALI program is to develop high-risk, high-potential reward projects in true collaborative efforts between academia and industry.

Kemp, along with co-principal investigator Dr. Bahram Moasser from General Electric Global Research Center, will not only focus on possible industrial applications, but also on the fundamental science and training opportunities for students. Selected postdoctoral and graduate students will have the opportunity to spend one month each year working on the project at General Electric in New York in close contact with the industrial collaborators.

“Many of the major purposes of conducting research sponsored by NSF go well beyond the actual science that is explored and discovered,” Kemp said. “They go to the training and development of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students. We strongly feel that close interactions between academic principal investigator, the academic students, and the industrial scientists will be key to maximizing learnings from this project.”

The goal of the project, “Fixation of Carbon Dioxide for Use in Radiopharmaceuticals,” is to develop a synthetically useful and rapid route to carbon-11 (11C) radiopharmaceuticals. 11C as a
radioisotope has not been exploited well commercially due to the relatively rapid radioactive decay of this nucleus.