Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C000552/1
Title:	Tools for metallopeptide synthesis
Principal Investigator:	Blower, Professor P
Other Investigators:	Mather, Professor SJ Biagini, Dr S
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Sch of Biosciences
Organisation:	University of Kent
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	21 November 2004	Ends:	20 November 2007	Value (£):	211,406
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Biological & Medicinal Chem. Drug Formulation & Delivery Medical science & disease
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
Related Grants:	GR/T18691/01
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The fastest growing class of radiopharmaceuticals for in vivo clinical imaging, and for targeted radionuclide therapy of cancer, are radiolabelled small peptides (e.g. octreotide). The conventional synthetic approach to these agents is to synthesise a peptide using solid phase methods, then attach a bifunctional molecule such as a metal chelator, either after cleavage from the resin (typically at a lysine side chain) or as the last step before cleavage. We propose that a far more flexible approach, providing potential for labelling at any specific location (for better control of biological properties of the conjugates) would be to design appropriate chelators containing pendant aminoacids, and incorporate them into the peptide during the solid phase synthesis. This approach would enable a chelator to be incorporated at any position (not just native lysines) whilst native lysines and the N-terminus could be unmodified. The chelator could be inserted in place of any aminoacid or in addition to the native ones. The approach would be better suited to combinatorial development of peptide based radiopharmaceuticals than conventional methods, because libraries of peptides incorporating chelators at a variety of locations could be radiolabelled quickly and easily with the appropriate radionuclide (the same as the one intended for the ultimate medical use, e.g. Tc, Cu, In) and subjected to high throughput screening. These tools would in the future be useful for building advanced materials containing ordered arrays of functional metal complexes exploiting the controllable secondary structures (alpha helix, beta sheet) of peptides.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk Summary Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:
Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.kent.ac.uk