Translational development of radiopharmaceuticals at Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot

The Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot (Orsay, France) is a translational and multimodal molecular imaging facility. It gathers on the same site two cyclotrons for the daily production of positron emitters, R&D and GMP hot labs for the manufacturing of radiotracers and radiopharmaceuticals, an experimental and preclinical imaging platform comprising PET, PET/CT, SPECT/CT scanners and ultrasound devices and finally PET/CT, PET/MRI and MRI clinical scanners. Beside the clinical nuclear medicine practice, intensive research programs are dedicated to the translational development of new radiopharmaceuticals and the support and “derisking” in drug development. During this seminar, after a rapid technical overview of our facility, I will illustrate these translational developments with two selected examples:

1/ [¹⁸F]DPA-714, a radiopharmaceutical to image neuroinflammation, from the identification of the chemical scaffold to the clinical trials: step by step development of a radiopharmaceutical.

2/ isotopic radiolabelling of dolutegravir, an antiretroviral drug, with fluorine-18 to decipher treatment limitations: hope and pitfall in the development of a complex radiosynthesis scheme and first images.