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• cancer/oncology
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• Surgery

• Gastroenterology
• Oncology
• Other

medicinal chemistry, clinical fluorescence imaging

The central theme of my medicinal translational research lies in the advancement of novel near-infrared fluorophores for real-time in vitro and in vivo imaging. The immediate goal of my research efforts is to enable a new NIR-fluorophore class developed by my research team to reach their full clinical potential as imaging tools for intraoperative fluorescence guided surgery. My research has its foundations in medicinal organic chemistry and chemical biology with strong collaborative links to medicine. I work in close collaboration with Prof Ronan Cahill (Professor of Surgery & Consultant General & Colorectal Surgeon, Mater Misericordiae Hospital & University College Dublin) for clinical translation of our new NIR-fluorophores.
For background see: O?Shea, D.F et al, Nature Communications, 2016, 7, 10855 and O?Shea, D.F et al, Chemical Communications, 2015, 51, 16667.

Medical imaging plays a pivotal role in cancer diagnosis and treatment planning following which a high percentage of patients rely on surgical intervention as the first line of treatment. Yet traditional imaging modalities have remained unsuitable for intraoperative imaging to assist in these procedures. In recent years, imaging with near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence has emerged as a new approach offering tremendous potential to be used for real-time image-guided surgery. Currently NIR imaging is clinically used for lymph node mapping and perfusion assessment though the scope to expand its clinical use for oncologic surgery is substantial. Currently an unmet clinical need exists for tumour targeting NIR-fluorophores which can allow the accurate identification of tumour margins and metastasis in the operating room without disruption of the surgical workflow. This project offers both laboratory and clinical research involving the generation of bio-conjugated novel NIR-fluorophores which target specific cancer cell markers, their assessment in cellular assays and determination of their cancer selective imaging potential using state of the art clinical instrumentation. The specific clinical goals are focused on imaging of colorectal cancers in collaboration with Prof. Ronan Cahill (Mater Misericordiae Hospital & University College Dublin).