{"id":8658,"date":"2019-05-29T21:48:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T21:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/?p=8658"},"modified":"2019-05-30T19:12:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T19:12:56","slug":"deans-seminar-series-presents-dr-james-inkster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/2019\/05\/29\/deans-seminar-series-presents-dr-james-inkster\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty of Science Dean’s Seminar Series presents Dr. James Inkster from the Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School – JUNE 6 @ 10:30 AM, D215"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Faculty of Science is pleased to welcome Dr. James Inkster<\/strong>, Research Fellow, Department of Radiology from Boston’s Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School as part of our Dean’s Seminar Series.<\/p>\n

“Looking inside\u00a0the body without a knife:\u00a0Developing\u00a0novel probes for medical\u00a0imaging \u2013 the case for\u00a018F-labelled Rhodamines”<\/h3>\n

WHEN<\/strong>: Thursday, June 6th
\nTIME<\/strong>: 10:30 – 11:30 AM
\nWHERE<\/strong>: D215, Abbotsford Campus<\/p>\n

Everyone is welcome to attend!<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

ABSTRACT<\/h3>\n

Assessing\u00a0heart\u00a0function\u00a0before the\u00a0patient has a serious cardiac event is a significant diagnostic challenge. To help with this assessment, scientists have developed techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography or\u00a0\u201cPET scanning\u201d\u00a0to look\u00a0at organ and tissue function non-invasively.\u00a0\u00a0PET scans use special dyes that are specific to the tissues\u00a0that are the target\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0study.\u00a0\u00a0These dyes contain radioactive tracers that allow images of their distribution in the body to be obtained using special imaging devices that can detect the radiation emitted by the dyes. \u00a0PET imaging agents are currently available for several diseases.\u00a0 For example, glucose labelled with the isotope fluorine-18 (18F) can be used to image tumors. \u00a0These imaging agents are not, however,\u00a0available for imaging all organs that are clinically important.<\/p>\n

Dr. Inkster\u00a0is involved in a\u00a0research\u00a0team that\u00a0is\u00a0developing\u00a0novel\u00a0PET agents\u00a0to\u00a0measure\u00a0blood flow to the\u00a0heart\u00a0as well as other non-cardiac applications.\u00a0 In addition, PET imaging might\u00a0also be useful for the\u00a0detection of\u00a0bacterial infections\u00a0such as tuberculosis, which would be of great value\u00a0in indigenous and\u00a0pediatric\u00a0populations.\u00a0 This talk will give us a peek inside the molecular imaging world.<\/p>\n

BIOGRAPHY<\/h3>\n

Originally from the town of La Ronge in Northern Saskatchewan, Dr. Inkster attended the University of Saskatchewan, where he graduated with a BSc in Chemistry (Hons.) in 1999. After graduation he taught ESL in Taiwan for a year, then returned to Canada to take a Master\u2019s Degree in Prof. Erika Plettner\u2019s lab at Simon Fraser University. His Master\u2019s thesis described the synthesis of gypsy moth pheromone analogues for use as species-specific pesticides, and after graduating in 2003 he worked as a Research Assistant in the insect chemical ecology lab of Prof. John Borden. In 2005 he began a successful appointment as a Research Associate at TRIUMF, Canada\u2019s National Lab for Nuclear and Particle Physics. Under the guidance of Life Sciences Director Dr. Tom Ruth and Head of Chemistry Dr. Mike Adam, he developed a long-standing interest in positron emission tomography (PET, a nuclear diagnostic imaging technique), and the design of PET radiopharmaceuticals. His primary area of research involved the synthesis of novel 18<\/sup>F-labelled peptides and oligonucleotides for the in vivo<\/em> imaging of cancer-specific biomarkers. From 2009-2013 he completed a PhD in Chemistry at SFU under Dr. Ruth and Prof. Tim Storr, although his research was carried out at TRIUMF and the BC Cancer Research Centre. His experience in the development of biomolecular PET tracers for cancer detection led to a post-doctoral appointment at Les H\u00f4pitaux Universitaires de Gen\u00e8ve in Switzerland under Prof. Yann Seimbille. Since 2015, Dr. James Inkster has held the positions of Research Associate in the Division of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital and Research Fellow in Radiology at Harvard Medical School. In Dr. Alan Packard\u2019s Radiopharmaceutical Research Laboratory, he spearheads efforts to design novel PET probes for the diagnosis and assessment of cardiovascular disease and Parkinsonian disorders.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Faculty of Science is pleased to welcome Dr. James Inkster, Research Fellow, Department of Radiology from Boston’s Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School as part of our Dean’s Seminar Series. “Looking inside\u00a0the body without a knife:\u00a0Developing\u00a0novel probes for medical\u00a0imaging \u2013 the case for\u00a018F-labelled Rhodamines” WHEN: Thursday, June 6th TIME: 10:30 – 11:30 AM WHERE: D215, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":8660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,7,21,5,58,9,6],"tags":[219,39],"class_list":["post-8658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-chemistry","category-deans-office","category-events","category-mathstats","category-news","category-physical-geography","category-physics","tag-chemistry","tag-guest-speaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8658"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8672,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658\/revisions\/8672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}