03 Nov 21. PiW VIP PET Prize winner

Congratulations to Dr Anna Barton who received the VIP PET Prize at the virtual PET is Wonderful annual meeting, for her work on 68Ga-FAPI in cardiovascular fibrosis imaging.

Dr Anna Barton, Clinical Research Fellow, presented work on 68Ga-FAPI in cardiovascular fibrosis imaging at the recent virtual PET is Wonderful (PiW) annual scientific meeting.

The project entitled “68Ga-FAPI as a marker of fibrosis activity & matrix remodelling in patients with myocardial infarction”, (a.k.a. The FAPI Fibrosis study) won the VIP PET Prize.

The FAPI Fibrosis study is an ongoing research project using PET-MR to assess the scarring response within the myocardium & vasculature following a heart attack. The project utilises fibroblast activation protein inhibitor radiolabelled with 68Gallium (68Ga-FAPI) which binds to areas of active scar formation within the body. 68Ga-FAPI is an area of intense research focus with over 200 peer-reviewed articles published on its use so far in 2021. In this project, the team will scan patients & healthy volunteers to determine the scarring response in acute & prior established myocardial infarction as well as healthy subjects.

To complement these clinical scans, ex vivo investigations on sections of myocardial tissue affected by myocardial infarction are also planned to validate the in vivo signal using techniques such as autoradiography. Dr Barton presented some initial clinical imaging data at the PiW meeting, & won the prestigious VIP PET prize which awards funds to support pre-clinical imaging within the Edinburgh Imaging Facilities.

The VIP PET prize will support this work by funding the vital ex vivo experiments using FAPI radiotracers to confirm that in vivo FAPI uptake represents fibroblast activation protein expression. The team’s collaborators, Dr Stephanie Sellers & Professor Jonathon Leipsic at the University of British Columbia, have provided the team with myocardial samples affected by several different pathologies including acute & prior established myocardial infarction, sarcoidosis, & chemotherapy cardiotoxicity, which the team plans to assess.

Locally, Dr Adriana Tavares & Dr Mark MacAskill have been instrumental in helping set up the proposed ex vivo experiments that will now be supported by this generous prize.

We asked Dr Anna Barton her thoughts on receiving this award.

“I am honoured to have received this fantastic award from the PET is Wonderful Organisation. PET is Wonderful was the first academic meeting I attended upon starting my PhD last year & I found it so welcoming & engaging. I was delighted to have the opportunity to present my work at this year’s online meeting & winning the VIP PET prize was the icing on the cake.

This will help to fund some exciting pre-clinical work that supports the clinical ⁶⁸Ga-FAPI imaging I’m performing for my PhD. I just hope that we can all get together for an in person PET is Wonderful in 2022!”