Dissertation Fanny Lundmark
- Date: 20 September 2024, 09:15–12:00
- Location: Uppsala Biomedical Centre, rum B42
- Type: Thesis defence
- Lecturer: Fanny Lundmark, doktorand vid Institutionen för läkemedelskemi
- Thesis author: undefined
- DiVA
- Organiser: Institutionen för läkemedelskemi
- Contact person: Fanny Lundmark
- Research topic: Drug development
Fanny Lundmark, PhD student at Uppsala University's Department of Medicinal Chemistry, defends her thesis: Design, Synthesis, and Preclinical Evaluation of Peptide-based Radioligands Targeting PSMA and GRPR in Prostate Cancer, a work in which she uses modified molecules and modern imaging technology to enable earlier and safer diagnoses of prostate cancer.
Every year, more than ten thousand Swedish men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Despite gaining access to increasingly effective treatments, it is currently the form of cancer that causes the highest mortality rate in our country. One of healthcare’s greatest challenges is to make correct diagnosis at an early stage in the course of the disease. Consequently, the need for improved tools is urgent.
At Uppsala University's Department of Medicinal Chemistry, ongoing research aim to develop new substances with the potential to enable painless and more effective diagnostics. In her doctoral project, Fanny Lundmark, has focused on the biomarkers PSMA and GRPR, which are overexpressed on the surface of prostate cancer cells, and have now modified a number of molecules that bind to both biomarkers. An achievement enabling visualisation of both primary tumors and the smallest metastases.
The substances Lundmark has developed – so-called radioligands – combine the molecule that binds to the biomarker with a radionuclide via a linker optimising the relationship between the two. The decay of the radionuclide is possible to detect with PET or SPECT, in turn generating images of the prostate cancer cells. One of the molecules presented in Lundmark’s thesis is already tried in a clinical study, where it successfully visualised cancer cells without causing unwanted side effects.
Opponent is Frederik Cleeren, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, KU Leuven.
The examining committee consists of Stina Syvänen, Uppsala University • Per Arvidsson, Karolinska Institutet • Alesia Tietze, Gothenburg University
Researcher Bio
Fanny Lundmark obtained her Degree of Master of Science in Pharmacy at Uppsala University in 2018. She began her doctoral studies at Uppsala University when she in September 2018 was recruited to Professor Mats Larhed's research group in Preparative Medicinal Chemistry.
Read thesis
Design, Synthesis, and Preclinical Evaluation of Peptide-based Radioligands Targeting PSMA and GRPR in Prostate Cancer (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2024)