Biography
Dr. Giuseppe Floresta
Dr. Giuseppe Floresta
King's College London, UK
Title: From Iron to Gallium a journey into hydroxypyridinones chemistry
Abstract: 
Hydroxypyridinones are exceptional building blocks for the development of a variety of agents in the field of metal chelation. The pyridinone ring is easily synthesized and converted into tetra-, hexa- and octadentate chelators. Their ability to rapidly and efficiently bind hard metals in aqueous media has facilitated the development of several applications in both biological and medical contexts. In our research group our attention is recently focused on Hexadentate tris(3,4-hydroxypyridinone) ligands (THP). THP complex Fe3+ at very low iron concentrations and their high affinities for oxophilic trivalent metal ions have led to their development for new applications as bifunctional chelators for the radiometal gallium-68 (68Ga). THP-peptide bioconjugates rapidly and quantitatively complex 68Ga at room temperature, neutral pH, and micromolar ligand concentrations, making them amenable to kit-based radiosynthesis of 68Ga PET (positron emission tomography) radiopharmaceuticals. Several THP scaffolds have been produced over the years and most of them resulted as great candidates for further development in the field of PET imaging. In this keynote, some examples will be analysed from the design to the in vitro and in vivo application.
Biography: 
Dr Giuseppe Floresta completed his Pharm. D. in 2014 (110/110 cum laude) at the University of Catania (Italy). He then engaged a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Catania from 2015 to 2018, during this period he spent 11 months at the King’s College London (UK) in the research group of Professor Robert Hider and Vincenzo Abbate, where he started his interest in chelating agents, peptides and radiochemistry. After one year of post-doc research at the University of Catania, he moved at King’s College London where he is post-doc research associate since September 2019. Since May 2020 he is a Marie Curie Fellow and he is working at the development of ICG68-PROG (https://www.icg68prog.com/) under the supervision of Dr Vincenzo Abbate. He is author/co-author of over 58 peer-reviewed publications.