Congratulations to Dr Adriana Tavares, Senior Research Fellow in PET Imaging, who has been awarded £1,020,547 for the PET synaptic imaging from the Wellcome Trust. Image Dr Adriana Tavares, Senior Research Fellow in PET imaging, University of Edinburgh. Image taken by Kallum Corke. Dr Adriana Tavares received funding through the Wellcome Trust Technology Development Grant. The grants were created for researchers who wish to develop new technologies & tools. About the project The project, “Enabling advance imaging of synaptic function in living males & females over the course of the lifespan with Positron Emission Tomography (PET)” will run from the 1st October 2020 to 30th September 2025. The project aims: To generate synthetic routes & radiochemistry methods for efficient production of [18F]MNI1126, a synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) PET radiotracer. To develop detailed template resources for quantitative analysis of SV2A PET signal in different brain regions over the course of natural aging in the rat & mouse. To validate SV2A PET in vivo outcomes at unprecedented scale & resolution using synaptome mapping technology. Image Professor Andrew Sutherland, Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of Glasgow With Dr Adriana Tavares (University of Edinburgh) as the Principal Investigator, Prof Andrew Sutherland (University of Glasgow) & Prof Seth Grant (University of Edinburgh) as co-investigators, this multi-centre project will be carried out within the Preclinical PET facility (Edinburgh Preclinical Imaging), Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (University of Edinburgh) & School of Chemistry (University of Glasgow). We asked Dr Tavares how she felt after receiving the grant award: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured this Wellcome Trust Technology Development Award. The development of the SV2A PET technology proposed in this award will catapult the use of quantitative SV2A PET imaging in many brain diseases in humans & model organisms.” Image Professor Seth Grant, Professor of Molecular Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh Related links PET synaptic imaging resources Wellcome Trust Wellcome Trust, Technology Development Grant Dr Adriana Tavares Professor Andrew Sutherland Professor Seth Grant Edinburgh Preclinical Imaging Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow PET is Wonderful (PiW) Brain & nervous system What is a PET scan? Edinburgh Imaging Academy PET-MR principles & applications Cert 29 Sep 22. PiW meeting success & training opportunities 23 Sep 22. PET synaptic imaging materials Social media tags & titles Congratulations to Dr Adriana Tavares, Senior Research Fellow in PET Imaging, who has been awarded £1,020,547 for the PET synaptic imaging from the Wellcome Trust. @EdinUniCVS @EdinUniCINEMA @EdinUniBrainSci @wellcometrust #PETimaging #PreclinicalImaging Publication date 16 Sep, 2020
