Research Summary

The central aim of my lab’s research is to develop novel biomarkers to non-invasively measure oncogene activity in cancer to improve diagnosis and the assessment of drug pharmacodynamics. This is a highly interdisciplinary research program, and I recruit students and postdocs that generally have a specialized background (i.e. a strong training in organic chemistry or cell biology, but not both), and train them in the other areas required of a well round molecular imaging researcher. Our projects span all aspects of biomarker development, from discovery with “omic” technologies, to refinement of lead agents to improve bioactivity in vivo. The majority of our de novo radiotracer development focuses on small molecule organic chemistry, and our antibody radiotracer development programs involves new bioconjugation chemistry, and defining and exploiting the biological mechanisms that underwrite the aberrant expression of cell surface receptors in cancer.

Research Funding

  • March 1, 2021 - February 28, 2026 - Precision targeting of T cell cytotoxicity with PET , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA258297
  • July 1, 2021 - March 31, 2025 - Developing a pretargeting strategy to detect Fe(II) for nuclear medicine applications , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01EB029429
  • April 20, 2021 - March 31, 2025 - New radiotracer development to study immune cell mobilization of granzyme proteolytic activity , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AI161027
  • June 1, 2020 - May 31, 2023 - Detection of the glucocorticoid receptor with PET in treatment resistant castration resistant prostate cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, Sponsor Award ID: W81XWH-20-1-0354
  • July 1, 2018 - March 31, 2022 - Development of a translational imaging tool as a predictive biomarker for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapies , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01EB025207
  • December 1, 2017 - November 30, 2021 - Development and translation of a novel radioligand to measure pathological changes in glucocorticoid receptor expression in the brain , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01MH115043
  • October 15, 2018 - October 14, 2021 - Precision Targeting of Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer with a Novel Ferrous IronDependent Therapeutic Delivery and Tumor Imaging Strategy , co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Prostate Cancer Research Program, Sponsor Award ID: W81XWH-18-1-0763
  • July 1, 2017 - June 30, 2021 - Development of a biomarker for imaging mTORC1 activity with PET , PI . Sponsor: American Cancer Society, Sponsor Award ID: 130635-RSG-17-005-01-CCE
  • August 30, 2016 - August 31, 2019 - Annotating MYC status in treatment resistant metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer with Gallium-68 citrate PET , Co-I . Sponsor: Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, Sponsor Award ID: W81XWH-16-1-0469
  • April 1, 2013 - March 31, 2019 - Annotating Oncogene Status in Prostate Cancer with Zr-89-transferrin PET , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA176671
  • July 31, 2017 - June 29, 2018 - Developing 68Ga-citrate PET/MR to distinguish viable tumor from psuedoprogression , PI . Sponsor: American Brain Tumor Association, Sponsor Award ID: DG1700008
  • September 28, 2015 - September 29, 2017 - Development of a radioligand to measure glucocorticoid receptor expression in enzalutamide resistant prostate cancer , PI . Sponsor: Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, Sponsor Award ID: W81XWH-15-1-0552
  • January 1, 2014 - December 31, 2016 - Noninvasive measurement of oncogenic signaling pathways with 89Zr-transferrin , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R00CA172695
  • January 3, 2013 - December 31, 2013 - Noninvasive measurement of oncogenic signaling pathways with 89Zr-transferrin , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K99CA172695

Education

St. Mary’s College of Maryland, MD, BA, 2001, Chemistry
The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, PhD, 2007, Chemical Biology
Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, Postdoctoral, 2013, Molecular Imaging, Cancer Biology

Honors & Awards

  • 2005
    1st Place Presentation, TSRI Faculty-Student Retreat
  • 2007-2010
    R25T Fellowship, National Institutes of Health (administered via MSKCC)
  • 2011-2012
    Research Grant, Brain Tumor Center, MSKCC
  • 2012
    Pathway to Independence Award, NCI
  • 2012-2014
    Research Grant, Imaging and Radiation Sciences Bridge Program, MSKCC
  • 2013
    Poster Award, World Molecular Imaging Congress, Savannah, GA
  • 2013
    David H. Koch Young Investigator Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation
  • 2024
    Sam Gambhir Trailblazer Award, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI)

Selected Publications

  1. Lee K, Lall R, Chopra S, Evans MJ, Maharbiz MM, Seo Y, Anwar M. SENTRI: Single-Particle Energy Transducer for Radionuclide Injections for Personalized Targeted Radionuclide Cancer Therapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2024 Apr 01; 118(5):1575-1584.  View on PubMed
  2. R. Lall, M. Evans, Y. Seo, A. Niknejad, M. Anwar. Dosimetry Reconstruction in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Using a Sparse Network of External ?-Sensors. International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics. 2023 Oct 1; 117(2):s30-s31.  View on PubMed
  3. Sorlin AM, López-Álvarez M, Rabbitt SJ, Alanizi AA, Shuere R, Bobba KN, Blecha J, Sakhamuri S, Evans MJ, Bayles KW, Flavell RR, Rosenberg OS, Sriram R, Desmet T, Nidetzky B, Engel J, Ohliger MA, Fraser JS, Wilson DM. Chemoenzymatic Syntheses of Fluorine-18-Labeled Disaccharides from [18F] FDG Yield Potent Sensors of Living Bacteria In Vivo. J Am Chem Soc. 2023 08 16; 145(32):17632-17642.  View on PubMed
  4. Klauser PC, Chopra S, Cao L, Bobba KN, Yu B, Seo Y, Chan E, Flavell RR, Evans MJ, Wang L. Covalent Proteins as Targeted Radionuclide Therapies Enhance Antitumor Effects. ACS Cent Sci. 2023 Jun 28; 9(6):1241-1251.  View on PubMed
  5. Sorlin AM, López-Álvarez M, Rabbitt SJ, Alanizi AA, Shuere R, Bobba KN, Blecha J, Sakhamuri S, Evans MJ, Bayles KW, Flavell RR, Rosenberg OS, Sriram R, Desmet T, Nidetzky B, Engel J, Ohliger MA, Fraser JS, Wilson DM. Chemoenzymatic syntheses of fluorine-18-labeled disaccharides from [ 18 F]FDG yield potent sensors of living bacteria in vivo. bioRxiv. 2023 May 20.  View on PubMed
  6. Chopra S, Trepka K, Sakhamuri S, Carretero-González A, Zhu J, Egusa E, Zhou J, Leung K, Zhao N, Hooshdaran N, Feng FY, Wells JA, Chou J, Evans MJ. Theranostic Targeting of CUB Domain-Containing Protein 1 (CDCP1) in Multiple Subtypes of Bladder Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2023 04 03; 29(7):1232-1242.  View on PubMed
  7. S. Martin Aubert, M. Richard, D. Kereselidze, M. Evans, B. Kuhnast, E. Porcel, C. Truillet. Preclinical evaluation of theranostic strategy using nanoplatform and transferrin to target hyperactivity of cMYC in the context of non-small cell lung cancer. Nuklearmedizin - NuclearMedicine. 2023 Mar 1; 47(2):51.  View on PubMed
  8. Gonciarz RL, Sakhamuri S, Hooshdaran N, Kumar G, Kim H, Evans MJ, Renslo AR. Elevated labile iron in castration-resistant prostate cancer is targetable with ferrous iron-activatable antiandrogen therapy. Eur J Med Chem. 2023 Mar 05; 249:115110.  View on PubMed
  9. R. Lall, K. Lee, S. Chopra, A. Niknejad, M. Evans, M. Anwar. Avalanche Photodiode-Based ?-Photon Scintillation Detectors for Personalized Dosimetry in Targeted Radionuclide Therapy. International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics. 2022 Nov 1; 114(3):e530-e531.  View on PubMed
  10. K. Lee, R. Lall, S. Chopra, M.M. Maharbiz, M. Evans, M. Anwar. Personalized Lu177 Theranostic Dosimetry Using a Single Beta-Particle In Vivo Microdosimeter. International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics. 2022 Nov 1; 114(3):s125.  View on PubMed
  11. Tran VL, Bouleau A, Nozach H, Richard M, Chevaleyre C, Dubois S, Kereselidze D, Kuhnast B, Evans MJ, Specklin S, Truillet C. Impact of Radiolabeling Strategies on the Pharmacokinetics and Distribution of an Anti-PD-L1 PET Ligand. Mol Pharm. 2022 10 03; 19(10):3673-3680.  View on PubMed
  12. Zhao N, Chopra S, Trepka K, Wang YH, Sakhamuri S, Hooshdaran N, Kim H, Zhou J, Lim SA, Leung KK, Egusa EA, Zhu J, Zhang L, Foye A, Sriram R, Chan E, Seo Y, Feng FY, Small EJ, Chou J, Wells JA, Aggarwal R, Evans MJ. CUB Domain-Containing Protein 1 (CDCP1) Is a Target for Radioligand Therapy in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer, including PSMA Null Disease. Clin Cancer Res. 2022 07 15; 28(14):3066-3075.  View on PubMed
  13. Agarwal S, Decavel-Bueff E, Wang YH, Qin H, Santos RD, Evans MJ, Sriram R. Defining the Magnetic Resonance Features of Renal Lesions and Their Response to Everolimus in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:851192.  View on PubMed
  14. Jiang H, Muir RK, Gonciarz RL, Olshen AB, Yeh I, Hann BC, Zhao N, Wang YH, Behr SC, Korkola JE, Evans MJ, Collisson EA, Renslo AR. Ferrous iron-activatable drug conjugate achieves potent MAPK blockade in KRAS-driven tumors. J Exp Med. 2022 04 04; 219(4).  View on PubMed
  15. Martinko AJ, Simonds EF, Prasad S, Ponce A, Bracken CJ, Wei J, Wang YH, Chow TL, Huang Z, Evans MJ, Wells JA, Hill ZB. Switchable assembly and function of antibody complexes in vivo using a small molecule. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 03 01; 119(9).  View on PubMed
  16. Lim SA, Zhou J, Martinko AJ, Wang YH, Filippova EV, Steri V, Wang D, Remesh SG, Liu J, Hann B, Kossiakoff AA, Evans MJ, Leung KK, Wells JA. Targeting a proteolytic neoepitope on CUB domain containing protein 1 (CDCP1) for RAS-driven cancers. J Clin Invest. 2022 02 15; 132(4).  View on PubMed
  17. Kim H, Huang Y, Zhao N, Wang YH, Sakhamuri S, Chopra S, Hooshdaran N, Sriram R, Aggarwal R, Evans MJ. In Vivo Profiling with 18F-YJH08 Reveals Diverse Tissue Patterns of Antagonist/Glucocorticoid Receptor Interactions. Mol Pharm. 2022 02 07; 19(2):704-709.  View on PubMed
  18. Wei J, Oh DY, Evans MJ. Preparation of Radiolabeled Antibodies for Nuclear Medicine Applications in Immuno-Oncology. Methods Mol Biol. 2022; 2393:829-839.  View on PubMed
  19. Bouleau A, Nozach H, Dubois S, Kereselidze D, Chevaleyre C, Wang CI, Evans MJ, Lebon V, Maillère B, Truillet C. Optimizing Immuno-PET Imaging of Tumor PD-L1 Expression: Pharmacokinetic, Biodistribution, and Dosimetric Comparisons of 89Zr-Labeled Anti-PD-L1 Antibody Formats. J Nucl Med. 2022 08; 63(8):1259-1265.  View on PubMed
  20. Meher N, Seo K, Wang S, Bidkar AP, Fogarty M, Dhrona S, Huang X, Tang R, Blaha C, Evans MJ, Raleigh DR, Jun YW, VanBrocklin HF, Desai TA, Wilson DM, Ozawa T, Flavell RR. Synthesis and Preliminary Biological Assessment of Carborane-Loaded Theranostic Nanoparticles to Target Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Nov 24; 13(46):54739-54752.  View on PubMed

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