Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy (Division of Nuclear Medicine)
Position: Associate Professor
ORCID: 0000-0003-4479-8053
T +43 1 40400 55330
wolfgang.wadsak@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords
Biomarkers, Pharmacological; Carbon Radioisotopes; Fluorine Radioisotopes; Gallium Radioisotopes; Molecular Imaging; Positron-Emission Tomography; Radiochemistry; Radionuclide Imaging; Radiopharmaceuticals
Research group(s)
- Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Applied Diagnostics
Research Area: The focus of the institute lies on the development of non-invasive diagnostic methods linking molecular epigenetic and genetic signatures with molecular imaging biomarkers for PET and SPECT analysis. The combination of these two methods will allow for improved functional, spatial and temporal assessment of tumor load and molecular tumor characterization.
Members: - Radiochemistry and Biomarker Development
Members: - Radiopharmacy and Experimental Nuclear Medicine
Members:
Research interests
The development of molecular imaging probes for PET is gaining more and more interest since applied diagnostics and stratification of patients for pinpointed treatment are the methods of choice in a 4P medicine environment. Hence, selective and specific radioactive tracers incorporating positron emitter nuclides are needed and their development requires cooperative research between (radio)chemists, (radio)pharmacists, clinicians, physicists, nutrion scientists, system biologists, network analyticians and technologists - to name just a few!
My special focus lies on the development of novel small-molecule PET-radiotracers and their translational evaluation to bring them into (first) in-human use. Furthermore, I pay special attention to the use of the molecular in-vivo information out of PET imaging in combination to "omics"-data (e.g. NGS, metabolomics, proteomics, immunolomics). For this purpose, I also serve as the scientific coordinator of Vienna based activities for the "Center of Biomarker Research in Medicine" (CBmed GmbH), a COMET K1 research centre based in Graz.
Techniques, methods & infrastructure
Medicinal Radiochemistry at the Division of Nuclear Medicine of the Medical University of Vienna comprises of all necessary equipment and infrastructure to develop novel radiopharmaceuticals, provide full radiopharmaceutical quality control and enable pre-clinical testing as a prerequisite for translation into a clinical setting.
- Medical Cyclotron (GE PETtrace 860)
- Several Hot-Cells (=fully shielded fume hoods; partly LAF-boxes; Comecer, van Gahlen)
- A variety of fully automated synthesizers (e.g. GE FASTlab; Scintomics GRP+; Elysia-Raytest GAIA; EZAG PharmTracer; GE TRACERlab FxC Pro; Advion NanoTek)
- Specialized QC equipment (radio-TLC, radio-HPLC, GC, ...)
Grants
- ATRI - A 99mTc-labeled Radiopharmaceutical for the Imaging of hypoxia and of renal cell carcinoma (2015)
Source of Funding: EU, Eurostars-2
Principal Investigator - CS15-033: Imaging the functional and molecular impact of poly-unsaturated fatty acids on dopamine-dependent cognitive functions: a combined [11C]-(+)-PHNO PET/MRI study at different stages of cognitive impairment (2015)
Source of Funding: WWTF (Vienna Science and Technology Fund), Cognitive Sciences
Principal Investigator - CBmed (2014)
Source of Funding: FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency), COMET K1
Principal Investigator
Selected publications
- Wadsak, W. & Mitterhauser, M., 2010. Basics and principles of radiopharmaceuticals for PET/CT. European Journal of Radiology, 73(3), pp.461-469. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrad.2009.12.022.
- Wadsak, W. et al., 2007. 18F fluoroethylations: different strategies for the rapid translation of 11C-methylated radiotracers. Nuclear Medicine and Biology, 34(8), pp.1019-1028. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2007.06.012.
- Wadsak, W. et al., 2006. [18F]FETO for adrenocortical PET imaging: a pilot study in healthy volunteers. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, 33(6), pp.669-672. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00259-005-0062-6.
- Pichler, V. et al., 2018. An overview on PET radiochemistry: part 1 - covalent labels -18F,11C, and13N. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, p.jnumed.117.190793. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.117.190793.
- Hahn, A. et al., 2012. Differential modulation of the default mode network via serotonin-1A receptors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(7), pp.2619-2624. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117104109.