Trio of researchers bring their expertise in radiopharmaceutical drug development to the PhmTox department

Dr. Jinda Fan, Dr. Kurt Zinn, and Dr. Carolina de Aguiar Ferreira have brought their expertise in radiopharmaceutical drug development to the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology.

They are not new to Michigan State University, as each has carved out a role in the College of Human Medicine (Dr. de Aguiar Ferreira), the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Human Medicine (Dr. Zinn), and in the Department of Chemistry (Dr. Fan), but their role in PhmTox is now expanded and noteworthy.

“I am incredibly excited to have Dr. Zinn, Dr. Fan, and Dr. Ferreira join the PhmTox team,” said Department Chair Dr. Anne Dorrance. “They are a natural fit with the MSU Drug Discovery Program; bringing these teams together will have a synergistic effect to enhance both programs.”

Dr. Zinn spent 22 years at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he coordinated the installation and commissioning of the largest medical cyclotron and radiopharmacy at an academic medical center.

Since arriving at MSU as part of the Global Impact Initiative, he recruited two junior faculty – Dr. Fan and Dr. Ferreira, who joined him as independent investigators.

At MSU, the team is developing and expanding their applications of radiochemistry to develop new radiopharmaceuticals, radioactive drugs used in nuclear medicine for both diagnostic imaging and therapeutic treatment of diseases, primarily cancer. Their transfer to PhmTox will provide a strong presence in cancer research and in the department’s Drug Discovery program.

Indeed, Dr. Zinn, the veteran of the trio with more than 30 years in the field, is especially anxious to work with the department’s growing Drug Discovery program.

“A lot of what we do with radiotracers can be directly applied to drug discovery,” he said. “Being able to add the radioactive component enables an in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) imaging pathway for drug discovery This is a real good fit.”

A major part of this collaboration, and a particular cause for excitement and anticipation, is the recently completed cGMP radiopharmacy facility and associated radiochemistry lab that represents a significant investment in advancing translational research and clinical applications of radiopharmaceuticals. It will allow the department to test new drugs that, with the benefit of the imaging option, can detect and target cancer in all parts of the body.

There is already testing underway for new approaches for targeted radiation therapy with radiopharmaceuticals specifically for bladder and prostate cancer, and, in short, allow more specific cancer targeting while reducing toxicity to normal cells.

“We’re trying to find a unique target for every cancer,” Dr. Zinn said. “It’s the next step in cancer research. Our ultimate goal is to deliver this targeted radiation therapy and then combine it with immunotherapy. We would like to use it as a way to get an immune response by the individual against the cancer.”

Dr. Fan, now in his fifth year at MSU, helped Dr. Zinn create the original program at UAB and is leading imaging work in the radiopharmacy facility, located in the basement of Clinical Center D, near the Institute for Quantitative Health Science & Engineering (IQ).

“It’s an exciting time for this field,” Dr. Fan said. “Our mission is to translate cutting-edge radiochemistry into real therapies for patients.”

His research develops novel radiopharmaceuticals for imaging and treating cancer and neurological disorders, with a strong focus on translating laboratory discoveries into clinical applications. He published a paper last year explaining the significance and scope of the new lab. “The facility’s comprehensive infrastructure, adherence to regulatory guidelines, and commitment to quality control underscore its pivotal role in supporting innovative research and enhancing patient care in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging,” Dr. Fan wrote in the paper.

Dr. Ferreira and Dr. Zinn are focusing on radiation therapy, where isotopes are injected and can pinpoint the location of a cancer so it can be specifically targeted.

Called theranostics, this approach combines diagnostic imaging with targeted therapy to diagnose and treat diseases, particularly cancer, using the same targeting molecule.

“You need it to go where the cancer is, so we first need to see if it goes there and doesn’t go where we don’t want it to,” she said. “It’s already changing the game.”

“Theranostics is a relatively new field, and it’s exciting to have a team in PhmTox doing such groundbreaking work,” Dr. Dorrance said. “MSU has a long history of innovations in cancer treatment, and this work could truly be transformative.”