In this work we continue to build on the N-aminoanthranilic acid moiety for rapid, catalyst-free complexation of aldehydes in living systems, developing a radiotracer capable of mapping aldehydic load in living subjects using Positron Emission Tomography.

Radiotracer for mapping aldehydic load in live subjects is published in Chem Comm

The cover illustrates our fluorogenic probes capable of speciation of biogenic aldehydes through fluorescent fingerprinting

On the cover of ChemBioChem Probes & Sensors Special Issue

Here we apply our fluorogenic sensor for live cell imaging of aldehydic load following the induction of electrophilic stress. On the cover, labelled cells are raining down in front of a graffitied wall.

On the inside front cover of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry New Talent Special Issue

Our work on aldehyde fingerprinting on ChemistryViews

Recent work on the fluorogenic fingerprinting of biogenic aldehydes was reported in ChemistryViews. See the article here.

Expanding upon the capability of our fluorescent imaging of aldehydes, we have published work fully characterizing the reactivity of our aldehyde-conditional fluorogenic agent, as well as demonstrated its application to the imaging of Aldehydic Load via live cell microscopy. This work was an invited contribution to a New Talent issue of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.

Imaging Aldehydic Load in live cells published in special issue

Our collaborative effort with Dr. Rolland-Lagan on identifying biogenic aldehydes through curvature analysis of excitation-emission matrices was published as a Very Important Paper in a special issue on Probes in Chembiochem.

Fluorescent fingerprinting of aldehydes published in special issue

Two of our graduate students, Yen Trong and Alexia Kirby, have just received the Ontario Graduate Student scholarship to support their studies. Congratulations Yen and Alexia!

Our graduate students receive scholarships

Thanks to support from the Verna J. Kirkness Foundation, Kelsee, Grace, and Tyra visited us from indigenous communities across Canada so we could give them a taste of the work we do in the Mol Med Lab. Listen to the story on CBC's Ottawa Morning here.

Hosting Kelsee, Grace, and Tyra in our lab was a blast!

Our work developing a CEST-MRI contrast agent that selectively "turns on" when covalently bound to aldehydes was published in Chemistry: A European Journal.

Aldehyde-conditional CEST-MRI contrast agent published

A Project Scheme grant in collaboration with the Rayner (UOHI) and Pratt (uO Chemistry) groups entitled "Aldehydes, Antioxidants, and Atherosclerosis: Translational prognostic molecular imaging with novel prognostic and companion diagnostic agents" was supported by CIHR.

We are CIHR funded!

Through an NSERC ENGAGE grant, we have initiated a collaboration with Qu Biologics to use PET/MRI to investigate the fate of their site-specific immunomodulators in mice.

Industrial partnership established with Qu Biologics

Our imaging and sensing probes for biogenic aldehyde detection was filed by uOttawa, opening up our technology for further development and industrial partnerships.

Patent filed for our aldehyde sensing compounds

An MR Solutions tunable field 3.0 T MRI obtained with CFI funding is now installed and ready to be used for pre-clinical contrast agent development.

Our MRI has arrived!