Achievement

Melissa Deri, 2nd year student, first year IGERT trainee, has achieved unique training and experience working with Zirconium -89, a medical positron-emitting nuclide that is potentially useful for molecular imaging using Postron Emission Tomography (PET) when conjugated to IgG antibodies, antibody fragments and peptides. She is extending her experience into ligand design for further stabilization of Zr-89. She is also developing new methods for analysis of small molecule Zr 89 entities. She and the MSKCC/Hunter team were invited to write a comprehensive review of Zr-89 chemistry for Nuclear Medicine & Biology, one of the leading Nuclear Medicine journals . She has also been mentoring high school students within the laboratory working on summer projects..