Ann-Marie CHACKO
Assistant Professor, Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Programme,
Head, Laboratory for Translational and Molecular Imaging (LTMI)
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Contact : ann-marie.chacko [at sign] duke-nus.edu.sg
Please replace [at sign] with @.

Developing novel probes for in vivo molecular
PET imaging of cancer immunotherapy
Ann-Marie Chacko
Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Programme, Laboratory for Translational and Molecular Imaging, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

Nuclear imaging technologies, such as positron emission tomography (PET), offers the potential to noninvasively

Research Interests

visualise and quantify biomarkers at a cellular level as they occur in their native environment, and in real time. PET ofMolecular Imaging, In Vivo Diagnostics, Drug Delivery Systems, Cancer Immunotherapy, Clinical Translation

Immunotherapy (CI), as it could provide a pivotal platform for validating treatment safety and efficacy for the number of

the tumour immune microenvironment (TME) is a fairly nascent field of study, and is highly relevant in the era of Cancer
CI combinations that are poised or already in clinical testing.
In this talk, I will outline our strategies to identify and validate prognostic and predictive biomarkers aimed to ultimately

Education

improve CI outcome. Specifically, I will highlight our preclinical efforts to track endogenous immune cell markers ofmetabolism and inflammation (18F-FDG-PET), proliferation (18F-FLT-PET), and cytotoxic T cell activity (18F-GZB-PET).

2001

B.Sc. Honours Biochemistry, Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada

2003

M.Sc. Chemistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

2008

Ph.D. Pharmacological Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (UPenn), PA, USA

We will also discuss strategies of taking probes beyond the preclinical space, towards the clinic. “Shedding light” on
immune response and their modulation, will have important implications for assessing treatment response during
therapeutic intervention trials in cancer, and in other immune-related diseases including emerging infectious disease.

Professional Career
2008- 2010

Postdoctoral Fellow, Pharmacology and Program in Targeted Therapeutics, Institute of Transla-

2011- 2012

Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Clinical Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Department

2012- 2014

KL2 Fellow, Clinical and Translational Sciences, ITMAT, UPenn, Philadelphia, PA, USA

2012- 2014

Research Associate, Division of Clinical Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Department

2015 - presentAssistant Professor, Programme in Cancer and Stem Cell Biology, Duke-NUS Medical School,tional Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT), UPenn, Philadelphia, PA, USA

of Radiology, UPenn, Philadelphia, PA, USA

of Radiology, UPenn, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Singapore

Publications
Goggi JL, Hartimath SV, Hwang YY, Tan YX, Khanapur S, Boominathan R, Jiang L, Husaini AR, Cheng P, Yong FF Tan PW, Yuen TY, Jieu B, Chacko AM,

1. Larbi A, Renia L, Johannes C, Robins, EG. Examining Immunotherapy Response Using Multiple Radiotracers. Mol. Imaging Biol. Mol. Imaging Biol. 2020;22(4):993-1002.

Herr K, Serrano RMF, Ong J, Madan B, Virshup DM, Chacko AM. Characterization of anti-Frizzled Antibody [Zr-89] 18R5 for PET Imaging of Pancreat-

2. ic Cancer. J Nucl Med. 2016, 57(2):58

Chacko AM, Han JY, Greineder CF, Zern BJ, Mikitsh JL, Nayak M, Menon D, Johnston IH, Poncz M, Eckmann DM, Davies PF and Muzykantov VR.

3. Enhancement of nanocarrier targeting to vascular endothelium via collaborative epitope engagement. ACS Nano. Jul 2015. 9(7):6785-93.

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