Revolutionising Infection Diagnosis Through Targeted Radiometal Imaging

About the Project

Please read the Funding note before contacting/applying

Background of the Project:

People with conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, organ transplants, or immunodeficiencies face higher risks of infection, complications, and death. Prompt and accurate diagnosis is vital to improve outcomes in these vulnerable groups. However, clinical diagnosis of microbial infections is often challenging, and noninvasive methods tend to perform poorly. Existing lab techniques typically require invasive sample collection, followed by time-consuming culture and antibiotic resistance testing. These methods delay results and lack real-time monitoring to assess disease burden or pinpoint the infection site. Imaging tools that specifically target pathogens are highly sought after to improve noninvasive infection diagnosis and localisation. Currently, no clinical imaging test can reliably distinguish infections from inflammation or malignancy or differentiate between bacterial and fungal infections.

Emerging research is exploring radiometals conjugated with targeting molecules for in vivo imaging of infections via PET or SPECT. These agents can also be linked to therapeutics, enabling combined diagnosis and targeted antimicrobial treatment (theranostics)—offering a promising tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

At King’s College London, in collaboration with clinicians as well as scientists from UKSHA, we have set up a unique facility to develop radiotracers (conjugating radiometals with different targeted molecules) and to evaluate them biologically in vitro and in vivo. We work closely with clinicians, King’s translational and King’s IP & Licensing team. Our team has expertise in working with industry to develop radiopharmaceutical kits.

What we offer:

We are offering an exciting and ambitious PhD research opportunity to explore different molecules/targets to develop infection-specific radiotracers and navigating their clinical translation.

As a PhD student, you will gain hands-on experience in several of these below:

• Synthetic chemistry and analytical techniques (HPLC, LC–MS, NMR)
• Designing and synthesising compounds for bacterial or fungal new targets or developing theragnostic agents
• Radiation safety, regulation and handling radioisotopes
• Radiochemistry (radiolabelling of compounds, purity, stability and in vitro characterisation of radiolabelled compounds using radio iTLC and radio-HPLC)
• Microbiological assays (microbial cell growth and maintenance, in vitro evaluation of radiolabelled compounds in different microbial pathogens) & tissue culture-based ex vivo evaluation
• Ethical and regulatory compliance for animal study (Home Office licensing in the UK)
• Preclinical animal studies (in vivo studies in healthy and infection model), Imaging data acquisition and analysis (Positron Emission Tomography)

Complementary training includes research ethics, scientific communication, project management, and collaboration across clinical and scientific disciplines—equipping you to contribute to innovative diagnostics and targeted therapies in the fight against infectious diseases and AMR.

Please also visit Dr Vincenzo Abbate’s website for more information:

Vincenzo Abbate - King's College London

Candidate Requirement:

We prioritise candidates with a strong MSc/MRes background who have demonstrated research skills through their dissertation in microbiology, biomedical science, chemistry, biology or relevant subjects. However, A 1st or 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in above-stated subjects with lab-based project experience is also welcomed. For more information on the entry requirements and fees please visit our website.

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/areas/cancer-and-pharmaceutical-sciences-mphil-phd

Applications and Enquiries:

Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to contact Dr Vincenzo Abbate (email: vincenzo.abbate@kcl.ac.uk) to discuss in detail before applying for this PhD studentship.