Neil Vasdev

Neil Vasdev is a Canadian and American radiochemist and expert in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, particularly in the application of PET. Radiotracers developed by the Vasdev Lab are in preclinical use worldwide, and many have been translated for first-in-human neuroimaging studies. He is the director and chief radiochemist of the Brain Health Imaging Centre and director of the Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). He is the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Radiochemistry and Nuclear Medicine, the endowed Azrieli Chair in Brain and Behaviour and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Vasdev has been featured on Global News, CTV, CNN, New York Times, Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail for his innovative research program.

Vasdev began his independent faculty career at CAMH/University of Toronto in 2004. From 2011–2017 he served as the director of radiochemistry and an associate centre director at the Massachusetts General Hospital and served as an associate professor in the department of radiology at Harvard Medical School from 2012–2022. He was recruited back to CAMH and the University of Toronto in November 2017.

Life and education

Vasdev grew up in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. He attended Oakville Trafalgar High School and graduated from McMaster University in 1998 with double bachelor degrees, summa cum laude, Hon. BSc in chemistry and B.A. in psychology. He concurrently worked as chemist at Astra Pharma and Glaxo-Wellcome. He then earned his Doctorate of Chemistry, supported by NSERC, at McMaster University in 2003, under the supervision of Professors Raman Chirakal and Gary J. Schrobilgen. He continued training with a NSERC postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Functional Imaging at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, mentored by Henry F. VanBrocklin.

Honours and awards

Scholarly and academic awards of Vasdev's career include:

• Fellow of Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging in 2021, for his distinguished service to the Society, and exceptional achievement in the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.
• Fellow of American Chemical Society in 2020, for his outstanding achievements and contributions to science, the profession and the Society.
• Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry in 2020, for his impact to the field of chemical sciences
• Research award of John R. Evans Leaders Fund 2019–2024 (specialty: Radiochemistry) from Canada Foundation for Innovation. This funding supports his proposal: "Automated apparatus for PET radiopharmaceuticals to image the living human brain"
• Research award of Endowed Azrieli Chair in Brain and Behaviour 2018–2023 (Specialty: Neuroimaging) from University of Toronto.
• Research Award of Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Radiochemistry and Nuclear Medicine 2017–2024 (specialty: Radiochemistry and Nuclear Medicine) from Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).
• Leaders Opportunity Fund (Research Infrastructure) 2009–2014 (specialty: Radiochemistry) from Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Research statements

Current methods to radiofluorinate non-activated aromatic rings are generally limited to esoteric electrophilic [F]F₂ reactions, transition-metal mediated, or iodonium salt based methods. The Vasdev Lab has a long-established history of labeling non-activated aromatics and recently discovered a simple synthetic strategy for incorporating [F]fluoride into non-activated aromatic molecules using spirocyclic iodoium ylide based precursors. Based on their paper in Nature Communications, a patent has been licensed by the pharmaceutical industry to employ this method for the synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals in humans. Hence, the iodonium ylide technology for fluorination represents a major advance for PET imaging.

There is a need for new methods of C radiosynthesis because current methods are largely limited to methylation. The Vasdev lab has co-developed new techniques of CO₂ fixation that are suitable for human use with diverse precursors synthesized by labeling at the carbonyl group (rather than the common methyl group). This methodology can label C-carbamates for imaging the enzyme FAAH ([C]CURB) or C-oxazolidinones for imaging MAO-B (C-SL25.1188), both of which they have translated for human use. They have also synthesized C-ureas and a C-carboxylic acid (C-Bexarotene).

Vasdev has introduced new radiochemical methods and radiopharmaceuticals for imaging the living human brain. The Vasdev Lab is exploring new ways to image neuroinflammation and tau protein. He is the co-inventor of the method patent for the first and only FDA-approved tau-PET radiopharmaceutical Tauvid that has been employed worldwide to image patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias, as well as patients with symptomatic traumatic brain injuries, including professional athletes and military veterans. The Vasdev Lab is partnering with Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada and the Canadian Military to work on the Project Enlist to study whether some military training exercises could be negatively impacting long-term brain health. “We are getting very close to advancing new radio tracers in humans to image the tau that is more prevalent in C.T.E.”.

Selected publications

Vasdev has over 10 families of patents and has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers including:

• Clouston, Sean A. P.; Hall, Charles B.; Kritikos, Minos; Bennett, David A.; DeKosky, Steven; Edwards, Jerri; Finch, Caleb; Kreisl, William C.; Mielke, Michelle; Peskind, Elaine R.; Raskind, Murray; Richards, Marcus; Sloan, Richard P.; Spiro, Avron; Vasdev, Neil; Brackbill, Robert; Farfel, Mark; Horton, Megan; Lowe, Sandra; Lucchini, Roberto G.; Prezant, David; Reibman, Joan; Rosen, Rebecca; Seil, Kacie; Zeig-Owens, Rachel; Deri, Yael; Diminich, Erica D.; Fausto, Bernadette A.; Gandy, Sam; Sano, Mary; Bromet, Evelyn J.; Luft, Benjamin J. (23 February 2022). "Cognitive impairment and World Trade Centre-related exposures". Nature Reviews Neurology. 18 (2): 103–116. doi:10.1038/s41582-021-00576-8. PMC 8938977. PMID 34795448.
• Liang, Steven H.; Wang, Lu; Stephenson, Nickeisha A.; Rotstein, Benjamin H.; Vasdev, Neil (May 2019). "Facile 18F labeling of non-activated arenes via a spirocyclic iodonium(III) ylide method and its application in the synthesis of the mGluR5 PET radiopharmaceutical [18F]FPEB". Nature Protocols. 14 (5): 1530–1545. doi:10.1038/s41596-019-0149-3. ISSN 1754-2189. PMID 30980032. S2CID 109938847.
• Collier, Thomas Lee; Normandin, Marc D.; Stephenson, Nickeisha A.; Livni, Eli; Liang, Steven H.; Wooten, Dustin W.; Esfahani, Shadi A.; Stabin, Michael G.; Mahmood, Umar; Chen, Jianqing; Wang, Wei; Maresca, Kevin; Waterhouse, Rikki N.; El Fakhri, Georges; Richardson, Paul; Vasdev, Neil (8 June 2017). "Synthesis and preliminary PET imaging of 11C and 18F isotopologues of the ROS1/ALK inhibitor lorlatinib". Nature Communications. 8 (1): 15761. Bibcode:2017NatCo...815761C. doi:10.1038/ncomms15761. PMC 5472746. PMID 28594000.
• Rotstein, Benjamin H.; Liang, Steven H.; Placzek, Michael S.; Hooker, Jacob M.; Gee, Antony D.; Dollé, Frédéric; Wilson, Alan A.; Vasdev, Neil (22 August 2016). "11CO bonds made easily for positron emission tomography radiopharmaceuticals". Chemical Society Reviews. 45 (17): 4708–4726. doi:10.1039/C6CS00310A. PMC 5000859. PMID 27276357.
• Liang, Steven H.; Chen, Jinshan Michael; Normandin, Marc D.; Chang, Jeanne S.; Chang, George C.; Taylor, Christine K.; Trapa, Patrick; Plummer, Mark S.; Para, Kimberly S.; Conn, Edward L.; Lopresti-Morrow, Lori; Lanyon, Lorraine F.; Cook, James M.; Richter, Karl E. G.; Nolan, Charlie E.; Schachter, Joel B.; Janat, Fouad; Che, Ye; Shanmugasundaram, Veerabahu; Lefker, Bruce A.; Enerson, Bradley E.; Livni, Elijahu; Wang, Lu; Guehl, Nicolas J.; Patnaik, Debasis; Wagner, Florence F.; Perlis, Roy; Holson, Edward B.; Haggarty, Stephen J.; El Fakhri, Georges; Kurumbail, Ravi G.; Vasdev, Neil (8 August 2016). "Discovery of a Highly Selective Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 Inhibitor (PF-04802367) That Modulates Tau Phosphorylation in the Brain: Translation for PET Neuroimaging". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 55 (33): 9601–9605. doi:10.1002/anie.201603797. PMC 4983481. PMID 27355874.
• Rotstein, Benjamin H.; Stephenson, Nickeisha A.; Vasdev, Neil; Liang, Steven H. (2014-09-22). "Spirocyclic hypervalent iodine(III)-mediated radiofluorination of non-activated and hindered aromatics". Nature Communications. 5 (1): 4365. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.4365R. doi:10.1038/ncomms5365. ISSN 2041-1723. PMID 25007318.
• Shoup, Timothy M.; Yokell, Daniel L.; Rice, Peter A.; Jackson, Raul N.; Livni, Eli; Johnson, Keith A.; Brady, Thomas J.; Vasdev, Neil (December 2013). "A concise radiosynthesis of the tau radiopharmaceutical, [ 18 F]T807: Radiosynthesis of [ 18 F]T807". Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals. 56 (14): 736–740. doi:10.1002/jlcr.3098. PMC 4114396. PMID 24339014.
• Vasdev, Neil; Pointner, Bernard E.; Chirakal, Raman; Schrobilgen, Gary J. (1 October 2002). "On The Preparation of Fluorine-18 Labelled XeF 2 and Chemical Exchange between Fluoride Ion and XeF 2". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 124 (43): 12863–12868. doi:10.1021/ja020604y. PMID 12392433.