The human gut microbiome has emerged as a key player in the bidirectional communication of the gut-brain axis, affecting various aspects of homeostasis and pathophysiology. Until recently, the majority of studies that seek to explore the mechanisms underlying the microbiome-gut-brain axis cross-talk relied almost exclusively on animal models, and particularly gnotobiotic mice. Despite the great progress made with these models, various limitations, including ethical considerations and interspecies differences that limit the translatability of data to human systems, pushed researchers to seek for alternatives. Over the past decades, the field of in vitro modelling of tissues has experienced tremendous growth, thanks to advances in 3D cell biology, materials, science and bioengineering, pushing further the borders of our ability to more faithfully emulate the in vivo situation. Organ-on-chip technology and bioengineered tissues have emerged as highly promising alternatives to animal models for a wide range of applications. In this talk I’ll discuss our progress towards generating a complete platform of the human microbiota-gut-brain axis with integrated monitoring and sensing capabilities. Bringing together principles of materials science, tissue engineering, 3D cell biology and bioelectronics, we are building advanced models of the GI and the BBB /NVU, with real-time and label-free monitoring units adapted in the model architecture, towards a robust and more physiologically relevant human in vitro model, aiming to i) elucidate the role of microbiota in the gut-brain axis communication, ii) to study how diet and impaired microbiota profiles affect various (patho-)physiologies, and iii) to test personalised medicine approaches for disease modelling and drug testing.

Personalised medicine will be greatly enhanced with the introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease and brain disorders. The unprecedented interest in developing theranostic radiopharmaceuticals is mainly due to the recent clinical successes of radiometal-based products including: • 177LuDOTA-TATE (trade name Lutathera, FDA approved in 2018), a peptide-based tracer that is used for treating metastatic neuroendocrine tumours • Ga 68 PSMA-11 (FDA approved in 2020), a positron emission tomography agent for imaging prostate-specific membrane antigen positive lesions in men with prostate cancer. In this webinar, Dr Brett Paterson and PhD candidate Mr Cormac Kelderman will present their research on developing the chemistry and radiochemistry to produce new radiometal-based imaging and therapy agents. They will discuss the synthesis of new molecules, the optimisation of the radiochemistry, and results from preclinical evaluations. Dr Brett Paterson is a National Imaging Facility Fellow at Monash Biomedical Imaging and academic group leader in the School of Chemistry, Monash University. His research focuses on the development of radiochemistry and new radiopharmaceuticals. Cormac Kelderman is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Brett Paterson in the School of Chemistry, Monash University. His research focuses on developing new bis(thiosemicarbazone) chelators for technetium-99m SPECT imaging.