ProfessorLouis Rendina

Project Opportunities

Title: Boron in Drug and Chemical Probe Discovery 

Summary of opportunity:

Boron-based drugs are increasingly being investigated in many disease categories. Numerous pharmaceutical companies (e.g. Pfizer, GSK, and Takeda) have dramatically expanded their boron research programs in recent years in the quest for novel drug candidates, e.g. Velcade® (bortezomib), which is used in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

In contrast, the use of polyhedral boranes in chemical probe discovery is only in its infancy. Our group is internationally recognised for this field of research and we are actively investigating the use of carboranes and other unique boron moieties in the design of new chemical probes, antimicrobials, and anticancer drugs.

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Project Opportunities

Title: New Tumour-Selective Chelators for Multiple Theranostic Applications 

Summary of opportunity:

We have recently designed a new class of organic chelators that can selectively target tumour cell mitochondria. These chelators can deliver high concentrations of these metal ions to tumour cells with high selectivity over normal, healthy cells.

There now exists the opportunity to exploit this family of chelators in a number of cutting-edge cancer therapies [photon activation therapy (PAT), neutron capture therapy (NCT), neutron capture enhanced particle therapy (NCEPT), and targeted radiotherapy] and also in tumour diagnosis (PET, SPECT and MRI) involving a variety of medically-relevant metal ions (e.g. Gd³+, Ga³+, Sc³+, Tb³+ and Lu³+).

The radiolabelling of selected chelators is conducted with collaborators at UNSW, UWA and ANSTO (Lucas Heights).

----------Current Research Projects----------

For more information please visit https://grouprendina.webflow.io